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Wives suing mistresses over gifted properties
By Liu Li (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-02 07:33
As the number of mistresses grows in China, the question of whether property
given to them by their lovers is legally theirs continues to be an issue.
Judgments by local courts gave the answer: The law does not protect the
rights of the mistresses given the property in most cases.
The Ruijin Municipal People's Court in East China's Jiangxi Province decided
a case late last month, ruling that a house donated by a man surnamed Wang to
his mistress, surnamed Liu, was invalid, the People's Court Daily reported.
According to the court record, Wang met Liu, a divorced woman, in 2004. They
bought a house in which to live together.
Wang later donated the house to Liu.
However, Li, Wang's wife, demanded that Liu return the house. Liu refused,
and Li went to court.
The court ruled that since the house was bought while Wang and Li were still
married, the house was the joint property of the husband and wife, according to
law.
When Wang decided to donate the house to Liu without asking permission from
Li, the legal property rights of the wife were infringed and the donation was
judged invalid, according to court sources.
Yang Dawen, a law professor at Renmin University in Beijing, agreed with the
court's judgment.
"According to the Marriage Law, properties acquired during the time period of
continued existence of marriage are owned by husband and wife together unless
they have special agreements," he told China Daily.
"But I believe that the one who infringed the wife's legal property rights
was the husband, instead of the mistress."
Yang said the wife should sue the husband instead.
A second case, decided by the Gulou District People's Court in Nanjing of
East China's Jiangsu Province, agreed with Yang's view. The court rejected the
wife's claim against her husband's mistress.
Wu Haiyang gave his mistress Xiao Yun 210,000 yuan
(US$25,900). Qian Ya, Wu's wife, sued Xiao, Nanjing Daily reported.
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