It will be decided on the 14th whether SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (65) and Art Center Director N..

On the 14th, a lawsuit for the division of property has been decided for more than nine years.
If you file an appeal, you will go to the Supreme Court

사진 확대 In a remand of the property division lawsuit between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Art Center Director Noh So-young at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu on July 24, the court ruled that Chairman Chey should pay 944 billion won in property division to Director Roh. The photo shows Chairman Choi (left) and Director Roh, who will attend the hearing on June 26. [Yonhap News]

It will be decided on the 14th whether SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won (65) and Art Center Director Noh So-young (65) will be completed in nine years. Attention is focusing on whether to pay 944 billion won, the largest amount ever, as a property split in a divorce lawsuit by a domestic chaebol known from the outside.

According to the legal community, this is the last day of the re-appeal period for the ruling of the remand of the two people’s property division lawsuit.

If even one of the appeals is filed on this day, the case will be judged by the Supreme Court again. If the two sides do not re-appeal by 11:59:59 p.m. on the 15th, the ruling of the revocation and remand will be finalized that Choi must pay KRW 944 billion in cash to Director Roh as of midnight on the 15th.

In addition, if Chairman Choi fails to pay the money on time, he will have to pay a delayed interest rate of 5 percent per year from the day after the ruling is finalized until all of them are paid back. This is about 47.2 billion won per year and 130 million won per day.

As a result, the general interpretation of the legal community is that delayed interest will occur from the 16th, the day after the date of the decision (15th). However, some analysts say that when the period begins at 0 a.m., it should be regarded as a delayed interest accrual date of 15 days in accordance with Article 157 of the Civil Code, which stipulates that the first day is included.

The two sides have not publicly stated their position on whether to re-appeal so far.

The legal community believes that it is unlikely that Director Roh will appeal again as the ruling of the revocation and repatriation trial is dominated by the analysis that Director Roh wins the decision.

On the other hand, Chairman Choi’s side is expected to appeal again to avoid the burden of delayed interest and to earn time to raise cash.

Of course, some predict that they will accept the ruling of the revocation and remand in order to shake off “judicial risks” and focus on management activities.

If the ruling of the revocation trial is confirmed, the legal dispute, which began in 2017 with Chairman Choi’s application for divorce mediation, will end in more than nine years.

사진 확대 The photo shows Chairman Choi (left) and Director Roh (Yonhap News) who will attend the 2nd mediation date on June 15 [Yonhap News]

Earlier, Chairman Choi, the eldest son of the late SK president Choi Jong-hyun, and Director Roh, the daughter of the late former President Roh Tae-woo, met while studying at Chicago University in the U.S., and married in 1988 and had three children. Although it drew attention as it was called the marriage of the century, Chairman Choi sent a letter to a daily newspaper in 2015 to reveal the existence of an extramarital child, and the fact of the breakup was revealed.

Later, in 2017, Chairman Choi filed for divorce settlement, but it broke down and began a formal lawsuit in February of the following year. Director Roh filed a counter-suit in December 2019, saying he would accept the divorce.

In December 2022, the first trial of the divorce lawsuit ruled that Chairman Choi should pay Roh 100 million won in alimony and 66.5 billion won in cash in property division. Chairman Choi’s SK shares were judged to be unique assets, not subject to division.

However, the second trial drastically increased the alimony that Chairman Choi had to pay to 2 billion won and the property division to 1.388 trillion won in May 2024.

As former President Roh’s “30 billion won in slush funds” and director Roh’s contribution to SK Group’s growth, SK stocks are also subject to property division.

However, in October last year, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the court to hear the case again, saying that even if the money flowed into SK, it cannot be taken into account as Roh’s contribution to the division of assets.

At this time, the judgment of the second trial, which calculated the alimony at 2 billion won, was confirmed as it was, and only the property division was dealt with in the revocation and remand trial.

On the 24th of last month, the Court of Cassation followed the purpose of the Supreme Court’s ruling, but judged that SK shares held by Chairman Choi were subject to property division, and calculated the property division at 944 billion won.

The Court of Cassation set the standard time for calculating the value of stocks subject to division as April 16, 2024, the closing date of the fact-finding (appeal) hearing of the divorce lawsuit.