Court Rules Against Clan's Gender-Based Property Distribution Giving Men Double

[Anchor]

Recently, a clan decided to differentially distribute billions of won in land compensation based on gender, granting men up to twice as much as women. The dispute ultimately led to a legal battle, and the court ruled that the clan's decision was invalid.

Here is an exclusive report by reporter Jo Yoon-ha.

[Reporter]

This is land in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, previously owned by Clan A.

In June of last year, approximately 74,000 square meters of the land were incorporated into a military facility site, resulting in 7.8 billion won in compensation.

After deducting taxes and expenses, the amount to be distributed among some 200 clan members was set at 3.9 billion won.

The clan's board of directors decided to pay 30 million won to first-generation male descendants in the grandfather's generation, 20 million won to second-generation males, and 15 million won to third-generation males, while paying 15 million won to women regardless of generation.

[Clan A General Meeting (March) : The first-generation males are the heads of households supporting their families, the roots of the family, and those who lead the clan. They are the roots that lead the family.]

Because clans are classified as private organizations, standards for property distribution are not stipulated in civil law or other regulations.

The distribution standard put forward by the clan was "contribution to the clan."

[Clan A Chairman : Isn't it also a problem to give the same amount to people who continuously participated in grave-tending or ancestral rituals as to those who didn't...? Women who married out go to their husbands' households and live diligently. (Times have changed a lot, though.) Times have changed, which is why we are giving them this much.]

Female clan members protested.

[Person B / Female Clan Member : It feels like treating us the same as a toddler, and it hurts our pride.]

They stated that they had never even been contacted to come to grave-tending or ancestral rites.

[Person C / Female Clan Member : We protested that this was discrimination. They said that if this kind of conflict arose, they would scrap the distribution itself.]

Female clan members filed for a provisional injunction with the court to suspend the effect of the resolution, and the court ruled that the clan resolution was invalid due to substantive defects.

The court stated, "The distribution plan is nothing more than discrimination based on gender and cannot be seen as having a rational basis."

[Shin Chae-eun / Attorney : The status of female clan members and male clan members is becoming increasingly equal, and female clan members must not be discriminated against without rational reason simply because they are women.]

In response to the court's decision, the clan stated, "We plan to withdraw the differential distribution plan based on gender," adding, "We are considering a plan to uniformly pay 15 million won."

(Video Reported by Lee Byung-joo, Im Woo-shik, Joo Yong-jin | Video Edited by Jeon Min-gyu)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.