[Edaily Reporter Choi Jeong-hee ] [Editor’s Note] While court rulings contain the conclusions of a case, the process leading up to those conclusions is often obscured by legal jargon.

[The Reason Behind That Day] reconstructs the case chronologically based on the facts recorded in court rulings. It traces the process by which a case unfolded, what transpired along the way, and how the court determined liability and outcomes.

The aim is not to understand or defend anyone. Rather, it seeks to examine, together with readers, the questions the case raises for our society through the records preserved in the court ruling.

In February 2017, a KakaoTalk message from her husband pops up.

“Dear husband, dear wife”

Just as they were entering their 20th year of marriage, my husband began an affair with another woman. My husband had a wife and three children, and the other woman was also married.

The KakaoTalk messages between the husband and the other woman were explicit. They referred to each other as “wife” and “husband,” and exchanged phrases like “I love you” and “I miss you.” There were also sentences implying physical contact, such as “It’s because my lips can’t reach you.”

The wife caught on to her husband’s affair and contacted the other woman directly, telling her to stop seeing her husband. However, the other woman continued to meet with him. This time, the other woman’s husband found out about it. Around July of that same year, he contacted the husband to confront him.

This illicit relationship was shaking both families to their core.

In February 2020, the other woman filed for divorce against her husband. In August 2022, the Cheongju District Court granted the divorce, ruling that while the other woman was responsible for the breakdown of the marriage, “there are exceptional circumstances under which a divorce petition filed by the at-fault spouse must be granted.” Although the other woman’s husband appealed, the appellate court upheld the ruling in April 2024, finding that she was responsible for the breakdown of the marriage.

However, during the divorce proceedings between the other woman and her husband, the two aggrieved spouses came into contact with one another. The other woman’s husband had been gathering evidence to prove that she was responsible for the breakdown of the marriage. In the process, he exchanged messages with the wife of the man with whom his wife had been having an affair. This occurred in April 2022.

In October 2022, the wife filed a divorce suit against her own husband. Her target was not just her husband. She demanded a divorce from her husband but sought damages from both her husband and the other woman. She claimed, “Since your affair destroyed my family, you must pay 30 million won in compensation.”

The husband did not remain passive either. In January 2023, he filed a counterclaim against his wife, stating, “I also want a divorce.” A counterclaim is a lawsuit filed by the defendant against the plaintiff within the same legal proceeding. In divorce cases, alimony and other compensation can vary depending not only on whether the divorce is granted but also on who is deemed more at fault, which is why counterclaims are sometimes filed.

In July 2023, the husband and wife divorced. It was their divorce after 25 years of marriage, having wed in 1998. Now, only one battle remained: securing damages from the other woman.

The trial court ruled in favor of the wife. In July 2024, the Cheongju District Court’s Family Division (Presiding Judge Jo Gyeong-jin) ordered the other woman to pay 12 million won out of the 30 million won claimed to the wife. The court found that the breakdown of the marriage was caused by the affair between the husband and the other woman, which led to the couple’s separation.

The court closely examined an incident from May 2022—before the wife filed for divorce—in which she asked her husband whether the other woman had visited her mother-in-law’s funeral. The court viewed this as evidence that the husband’s infidelity in 2017 was still affecting their marital life even five years later.

The other woman claimed, “The wife forgave her husband even after learning of his affair in 2017, and the wife bears greater responsibility for the breakdown of the marriage.” The court ruled that the other woman’s statement lacked sufficient evidence.

However, the crucial point is the timing of when the wife filed the lawsuit against her husband and the other woman. The other woman argued that, pursuant to Article 766(1) of the Civil Code, the wife must file a claim for damages within three years of the date she became aware of the adultery. Since the wife became aware of the affair in 2017 and filed the lawsuit five years later in 2022, the other woman contended that the statute of limitations for claiming damages had already expired.

However, the court reasoned that since the wife had filed the claim for damages on the premise that her marriage had broken down due to the other woman, such damages could only be ascertained after the divorce. In other words, since the husband and wife divorced in July 2023 and the claim for damages was filed in October 2022, the court ruled that the statute of limitations had not expired.

The other woman could not accept the first-instance court’s ruling. She therefore filed an appeal. The second-instance court’s ruling differed from that of the first instance.

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