Jeonju Divorce Attorney | Client Files a Marriage Nullity Suit on Behalf of a Deceased Family Member and Obtains a Favorable Judgment

The client had been in serious conflict with his father since childhood.

As he became an adult, his contact with his father gradually ceased.

However, when his father received a terminal diagnosis due to a rare disease, the client gradually began to care for him again.

His father, who had continued his battle with illness, ultimately passed away.

Afterward, the client, who set about organizing documents related to his father, encountered a surprising situation.

He discovered that, several years earlier, his father had registered a marriage with a foreign woman.

However, the client had never heard anything from his father about this woman.

The client therefore concluded that the woman, without his father's consent, had registered the marriage through a broker as a means of obtaining employment in Korea, and he resolved to file a marriage nullity suit.

Civil Act, Article 815 (Nullity of Marriage) A marriage shall be null and void in any of the following cases:
1. Where there is no agreement to marry between the parties
2. Where the marriage violates the provisions of Article 809(1)
3. Where there is or has been a lineal relationship by affinity between the parties
4. Where there has been a lineal blood relationship of the adoptive parent's line between the parties

Family Litigation Act Article 23 (Persons Entitled to File a Suit for Nullity of Marriage or Nullity of Divorce)
A party, a legal representative, or a relative within the fourth degree of kinship may file a suit for nullity of marriage or nullity of divorce at any time.

“Where a foreign national B reaches a marriage registration with A without any intention of establishing a genuine marital relationship with A, but merely as a means of entering and obtaining employment in Korea, even if B continued to maintain married life with A for one month after entering Korea, this appears to be no more than B temporarily creating the outward appearance of married life in order to achieve the aforementioned other purpose without any genuine intention to marry, so there is no meeting of marital intent between A and B, and the marriage is therefore null and void under Article 815, item 1 of the Civil Act.” (See Supreme Court, Judgment of June 10, 2010, 2010 Meu 573, etc.)

On the marriage registration document, the two were clearly husband and wife.

However, upon investigation, the two had never lived together for even a single moment.

The client's father had struggled with a rare disease for several months, and even during that time the woman did not appear before the father.

In addition, it was difficult to find any record of the woman having filed a move-in report.

Above all, the client's father had never once traveled abroad before or after registering the marriage with this woman.

Given that there was no trace of actual cohabitation, no move-in report on the records, and not even any record of the client's father going abroad to meet the woman, it was appropriate to regard this marriage as null and void.

The Jeonju divorce attorney emphasized these circumstances and argued that the marriage was null and void.

As noted above, the woman who registered the marriage with the client's father had no contact whatsoever with the client.

The client's father had the woman's contact information, and it was confirmed that he had attempted to contact her several times during his lifetime but had been refused.

The woman also did not express any intention to the client's father of coming to Korea.

However, after hearing the news of the client's father's death, her attitude changed.

She began to demand money related to the inheritance through the person who had introduced the two.

On the basis of these points, the Jeonju divorce attorney argued that the marriage was null and void, stating that the woman appeared to have registered the marriage through a broker.

“Nullity of marriage” refers to causing the effect of a marriage to be lost retroactively.

If a marriage is determined to be null and void, the parties are deemed never to have been husband and wife from the outset, which makes it different from “divorce.”

In fact, the cases in which nullity of marriage is recognized are not very many.

Therefore, if you wish to have a marriage declared null and void, you must, with the assistance of a specialist, accurately demonstrate to the court that grounds for nullity of marriage exist.

Daeryun Law Firm, to which the Jeonju divorce attorney belongs, has attorneys with extensive relevant experience who actively assist clients.

If you are facing concerns about a marriage nullity suit, please visit Daeryun Law Firm, to which the Jeonju divorce attorney belongs.