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

[Anchor]

Recently, a clan decided to differentially distribute billions of won in land compensation based on gender, offering male members up to twice as much. The dispute ultimately went to court, and the judge ruled that the clan's decision was invalid.

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

[Reporter]

This is the 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 3.9 billion won.

The clan's board of directors decided to allocate 30 million won to first-generation male descendants in the grandfather generation, 20 million won to the second generation, and 15 million won to the third generation. Meanwhile, female members were designated to receive 15 million won regardless of generation.

[Clan A General Assembly (March) : The first-generation males are the heads of households who support 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 laws.

The distribution criterion put forward by the clan was their contribution to the clan.

[Clan A Chairman : Isn't it problematic to give the exact same amount to someone who consistently participated in grave-minding or ancestral rituals as someone who didn't? Married-off women go to live diligently in their respective households. (Times have changed a lot, though.) Since times have changed, we are giving them this much.]

Female clan members protested.

[Ms. B / Female Clan Member : No matter what, it feels like treating us the same as a grandchild with snot on their nose, and it hurts my pride.]

They stated they had never even been notified to attend grave-minding or ancestral rites.

[Ms. C / Female Clan Member : We protested that this was discrimination. They told us that if such conflict arose, they would simply cancel the distribution altogether.]

Female clan members filed for a provisional injunction to suspend the resolution, and the court ruled that the clan's resolution was invalid due to substantive flaws.

The court stated, "The distribution plan is merely discrimination based on gender and cannot be seen as having a rational basis."

[Shin Chae-eun / Lawyer : 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 ruling, the clan stated, "We plan to withdraw the differential distribution plan based on gender," and added, "We are considering a plan to uniformly pay 15 million won."

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