Text|Mr. Johnson
On December 11, the Supreme People's Court released typical cases of bride price disputes.
Although the parties have lived together for a short time, they have not yet formed a complete family community and a stable living stateIt cannot be assumed that there is already a stable common life. In view of the fact that the two parties have registered their marriage, and after Liu paid the bride price, the two parties have common expenses such as joint preparations for the wedding ceremony, joint travel, and exchanges between relatives and friends, this part of the expenses will be deducted. Accordingly, the court determined at its discretion that the bride price of 800,000 yuan should be returned.
Readers take a look, wow, 800,000 bride price returned, the number is quite large, but the bride price paid by people at the beginning was 1.06 million. The wool comes out of the sheep.
In this case, there is a description: "Although the parties have lived together for a short time, they have not yet formed a complete family community and a stable living state, so it cannot be deemed that they have a stable common life." This finding of fact played a significant role in the return of most of the bride price.
Article 5 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the Marriage and Family Section of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China (Fa Shi 2020 No. 22) stipulates: "Where a party requests the return of the bride price paid in accordance with Xi customs, the people's court shall support it if it is found to be in the following circumstances:
1) The parties have not gone through the marriage registration formalities;
2) The parties have gone through the marriage registration formalities but do not live together;
3) Premarital payments that cause hardship to the payor.
The application of the provisions of items (2) and (3) of the preceding paragraph shall be conditional on the divorce of both parties. “
The above provisions are the main content of the return of the bride price, and it stands to reason that with this provision, the question of whether the bride price should be returned and how to return the bride price has been decided. However, in fact, there are many controversies and ambiguities in judicial practice, and the most divergent one is (2) the situation: "the two parties go through the marriage registration formalitiesBut they did not live together；"How is co-living defined here, can three days of co-living be the same as three years of co-living?How to judge the time spent together, the relationship between the time spent together and the return of the bride price is tricky in the trial of specific cases.
Today, the SPC's typical case has a relatively clear expression of "living together". But it is no coincidence that this case is released today, because today there is another important news about the bride price:
On January 11, the Supreme People's Court, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the All-China Women's Federation jointly held a press conference on the governance of high bride prices. Chen Yifang, president of the First Civil Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court, revealed that the "Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Cases Involving Bride Prices" (hereinafter referred to as the "Bride Price Provisions") will be open to the public for comments, emphasizing the principle of prohibiting the use of bride price as a pretext for obtaining property through marriage, and regulating the scope of the bride price, the conditions for return, and the determination of the parties, so as to further unify the adjudication standards.
In the SPC's draft opinion, a specific and open definition of bride price is provided, and the special scope of bride price is excluded. The most important thing is that the SPC clearly stipulates in the draft opinion that "the people's court may comprehensively consider the amount of the bride price according to the specific circumstances of the case."Time spent together, the actual use of the bride price and the dowry, whether there are children, the fault of both parties, etc., combined with local XiDetermine whether and in what percentage of the return.
For the first time in history, the proportion of the bride price is clearly linked to the time spent together, and the value of this provision is a serious blow to the "marriage" that is on the verge of "herding pigeons". Through this regulation, to a large extent, the way of making a living for scumbags to use marriage to extract money from men has been suppressed.
It can be said unambiguously that after the implementation of the "Bride Price Regulations", the days when it was convenient for a woman to receive a certificate and not return the bride price are gone.
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