A woman whose husband confessed to a seven-year affair on his deathbed has won a civil damages claim against his affair partner — a woman who was also her close personal friend. Here are the key points.

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Background

– A and C married in July 1991 and raised two children together. In 2015 they moved to the countryside to farm. In December 2024, C was diagnosed with lung cancer and admitted to the ICU in October 2025. He died approximately two months later.
– Shortly before dying, C confessed the affair to A and apologized. His affair partner was B, a primary school classmate.
– B and C had grown close through alumni gatherings and hiking trips. B knew C was married and had been close enough to A to address her as an older sister — yet the affair continued for approximately seven to eight years.
– In February 2023, A inadvertently answered a video call B had placed to C, which revealed the relationship. B promised never to see C again, and A let the matter rest.
– After C’s death, while going through his belongings, A found automatically recorded phone calls between C and B on his mobile phone. She then filed suit against B.

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Court Decision

– Daegu District Court, Seobu Branch (Judge Park Eun-ju) ruled in A’s favor, ordering B to pay A ₩30 million in damages.
– The court held that where a third party engages in an affair with one spouse, thereby interfering with or undermining the marital life that is fundamental to the institution of marriage, and causing psychological suffering to the other spouse, that conduct constitutes a tort as a matter of principle.
– The court clarified that marital infidelity under Korean civil law is not limited to sexual intercourse — it encompasses any conduct that is inconsistent with the duty of fidelity between spouses, including maintaining an emotionally intimate relationship beyond ordinary friendship.
– Based on the content of the recorded phone calls, the court found it established that B and C had maintained a relationship exceeding ordinary friendship — in breach of spousal fidelity obligations — for approximately seven to eight years.
– The court found it self-evident from ordinary life experience that A suffered psychological harm as a result, and held B liable in damages accordingly.

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Key Takeaways

– Under Korean civil law, a third party who maintains an intimate relationship with a married person — even if sexual intercourse is not proven — can be held liable in tort for interfering with the marital relationship and causing the other spouse psychological harm.
– The duty of marital fidelity that grounds this tort extends beyond physical infidelity to encompass emotional intimacy conducted in breach of the spousal relationship.
– The close personal friendship between A and B — close enough that they addressed each other as family — was a factual circumstance noted by the court and likely weighed in assessing the degree of harm and the gravity of the conduct.
– Automatically recorded phone calls retrieved from a deceased spouse’s mobile phone can serve as civil evidence of the nature and duration of the affair, even though the deceased can no longer testify.
– The wife’s earlier decision not to pursue the matter after B’s 2023 promise did not waive her right to later sue — the full extent of the affair only became apparent after C’s death through the phone recordings.

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Why This Matters

This case is a reminder that in Korea, a surviving spouse’s right to sue a deceased partner’s affair partner does not die with the partner — and that the evidentiary trail left on a smartphone can outlast the relationship it recorded. For practitioners handling post-death estate and family disputes, the case illustrates the evidentiary significance of digital records recovered from the deceased’s devices. For the public, it is a straightforward confirmation that Korean civil law continues to treat sustained intimate conduct outside marriage as a compensable wrong against the other spouse, regardless of whether the affair crossed into physical territory.

Article: http://m.inews24.com/v/1998029