Supreme Court allows divorced couples to nullify marriages

A total of 13 judges at the Supreme Court sit to rule on cases appealed to the court on Thursday in Seocho District, southern Seoul. [NEWS1]

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that divorced couples are eligible to nullify their marriages under certain circumstances, overturning a previous verdict which barred the annulment of such marriages.

The top court recognized that the interests of former spouses could be protected by voiding marriages even after legal separation. The ruling marks the first time in 40 years that post-divorce marriage annulments are allowed.

The court acknowledged annulment as “a valid and appropriate means of seeking and serving the legal interests of a divorced couple,” citing that it can help settle various types of relationships and related interests developed during marriage.

This ran counter to a precedent set in a 1984 ruling from the Supreme Court, which found that a post-divorce marriage annulment carried “no benefit."

The 1984 ruling also stated that the marriage of a divorced couple could not be invalidated after death, as it seemed to carry no practical benefit by doing so.

On Thursday, a total of 13 top judges unanimously voted in favor of a divorced woman in a case from the lower court, which dismissed a lawsuit requesting the judiciary to annul her marriage which lasted from 2001 to 2004.

“Denying the interests of a divorced couple will result in blocking people’s chances of seeking remedies for the damages incurred by [unlawful] marriages,” the top court said in the latest ruling.

The plaintiff said there was “no actual agreement” when she entered her marital relationship. She said that the marriage registration took place while she did not have full cognitive control of herself.

The complainant also claimed that she had been excluded from state benefits for single moms because of her marriage record.

The top court sent the case back to the Seoul Family Court to rule on the case.

In addition, the Supreme Court on Thursday stated that a lawsuit on marriage annulment must precede the revision of family registration documents in order to "secure objective evidence.”

The recent ruling “enabled remedial measures for people who experienced disadvantages due to miswritten records of a marriage which should be voided,” an official from the Supreme Court said.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]