In a ruling made public on 6 October, a 46-year-old married man, identified as Vuong, met a woman named La, born in 2002, at an entertainment venue in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, in September 2022. The two subsequently began a romantic relationship.
From December 2022 to April 2024, Vuong transferred money to La multiple times, totaling 100,925 Chinese yuan (CNY). He also purchased five pieces of gold jewelry for her, valued at 26,109 CNY.
During their nearly two-year relationship, they never had intimate relations or lived together. Vuong frequently suggested renting hotel rooms during their outings, but La consistently declined.
The relationship deteriorated, and La proposed ending it. Vuong demanded his former lover return the money and jewelry she had received, but she refused. La even stopped answering his calls and blocked him on social media platforms.
Vuong then filed a lawsuit against La, joined by his wife, Kim.
La argued that when they first met, Vuong presented himself as single and pursued her enthusiastically. She claimed she only learned he was married in April 2024 and immediately proposed a breakup. According to La, small monetary gifts like 520, 888, and 999 CNY were tokens of affection between two people in love. She asserted that amounts of 2,000 CNY or more were shared expenses for dates and travel, and therefore, she was not obligated to return them.
However, based on the content of their chat history, the Thien Nga District People's Court in Guangxi province determined that La was aware Vuong was married with children during their relationship.
The court found that Vuong engaged in an extramarital affair with La while married, giving her money and jewelry. The court ruled these gifts stemmed from an illicit relationship outside of marriage. According to China's Civil Code, civil acts that violate public order and good morals are invalid. Therefore, the gifts were deemed void from the outset.
Regarding the transferred funds and the money used to purchase jewelry, the court determined that all of it constituted joint marital property belonging to Vuong and Kim. Spouses have equal rights to dispose of joint property, and significant asset transactions require mutual agreement. Vuong's unilateral decision to give a large portion of joint property to another person without his wife's consent seriously infringed upon Kim's property rights and interests. Consequently, Kim had the right to demand restitution.
The court rejected La's argument that the money received was used for shared expenses, stating she provided insufficient evidence to support this claim. Even if some shared expenses had occurred, this would not negate Kim's right to demand restitution as a co-owner of the property.
For smaller transfers with special symbolic meanings, such as 520 and 999 CNY, the court considered their nature as expressions of affection and decided to deduct a portion.
Ultimately, the court ordered La to return 60,000 CNY in transferred funds to Kim, along with all related gold jewelry. If she could not return the physical items, she had to compensate with an equivalent amount of 26,109 CNY.
The court rejected Vuong's claim for property recovery, as he was the one who gifted the assets.
Tue Anh (according to SZTV, Hongxing News)
