▲ SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong
It will soon be decided whether the property division lawsuit between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (65) and Art Center Nabi Director Roh Soh-yeong (65), which has continued for over nine years, will come to an end.
According to the legal community on August 9, the deadline for both sides to file a final appeal against the remand ruling on their property division lawsuit is August 14.
If neither Chairman Chey nor Director Roh files a final appeal or if they submit statements waiving their right to appeal during this period, the remand ruling ordering Chairman Chey to pay 944 billion won in property division to Director Roh will be finalized as is.
This means the legal battle, which began with Chairman Chey's application for divorce mediation in 2017, will finally conclude after about nine years.
However, if either side files a final appeal, the case will once again be subject to the Supreme Court's judgment.
As the legal community generally views the remand ruling as a decisive victory for Director Roh Soh-yeong, it is highly likely that Chairman Chey would be the one to file a final appeal if anyone does.
The first-instance court for the divorce lawsuit classified SK shares as Chairman Chey's exclusive property and ruled that Chairman Chey should pay Director Roh 100 million won in alimony and 66.5 billion won in cash for property division.
In May 2024, the second-instance court substantially increased the alimony Chairman Chey must pay to 2 billion won and the property division amount to 1.3808 trillion won.
On July 24, the remand trial court followed the spirit of the Supreme Court ruling while determining that the SK shares held by Chairman Chey are indeed subject to property division, calculating the property division amount at 944 billion won.
This is evaluated as the largest property division amount ever recorded in a chaebol family divorce lawsuit known to the public.
The remand trial court set the reference date for calculating the value of the shares subject to division as April 16, 2024, which was the closing date of arguments in the fact-finding trial (appellate trial) of the divorce lawsuit.
Although it rejected Director Roh's argument that the calculation should be based on June 26, the closing date of arguments in the remand trial, it reflected the circumstances of a sharp rise in stock prices between the two dates in calculating the property division ratio.
Following the ruling, Chairman Chey's side stated, "Through the nearly 20-year process of dissolving the marriage, the divorce was finalized by last year's Supreme Court ruling, and the property division remand ruling has now been handed down," adding, "Chairman Chey sincerely apologizes for causing concern to many people throughout the process so far."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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