The husband cheated in marriage and transferred more than 370,000 yuan to his lover one after another, and after the wife found out, she sued her lover to the court and demanded the return of the transferred money. Can the property donated to a third party by the cheating party be recovered? On January 30, 2024, the Supreme People's Procuratorate released the second batch of typical cases of procuratorial organs implementing the Civil Code, which disclosed the "Feng and Li Gift Contract Dispute Protest Case".
The husband transfers money to his lover.
The wife sued for restitution.
The man He and Feng are husband and wife, and they have a son and a daughter. Since August 2017, He often consumes in foot bathing places, and got acquainted with Li, who is engaged in management here, and then had an extramarital affair with Li. Li also knew that He had a family and children.
From August 2017 to September 2019, He transferred 14 transfers totaling more than 20 yuan to Li through bank cards; From August 2017 to November 2019, in order to maintain the relationship between the two, He transferred 278 transactions totaling more than 170,000 yuan to Li through WeChat, including "520", "1314" and other special meanings. From August 2017 to October 2019, Li transferred a total of more than 90,000 yuan to He through WeChat, and paid more than 50,000 yuan on behalf of He.
The court of second instance ruled to return more than 110,000 yuan.
In January 2020, Feng filed a lawsuit with the Xuanhan County Court of Sichuan Province on the grounds that He's act of donating property to Li infringed on his property rights and interests, requesting that He's gift of Li's property during the marriage relationship be invalid, and requiring Li to return the donated property and interest. The Xuanhan County People's Court rejected Feng's claim in the first instance.
Feng was dissatisfied with the first-instance judgment and appealed to the Dazhou Intermediate People's Court. The Dazhou Intermediate People's Court held that during the existence of the husband and wife relationship, He violated the duty of fidelity of husband and wife and transferred more than 370,000 yuan to Li, and his property disposal was not recognized by Feng, and the gift was invalid. 50% of the gift money belongs to Feng, and He has no right to dispose of it. He donated 370,000 yuan to Li, and after deducting more than 140,000 yuan transferred from Li to He, the remaining more than 230,000 yuan. 50% of the share of more than 230,000 yuan belongs to Feng, and Li should return it. The second-instance judgment of the Dazhou Municipal Court revoked the first-instance judgment, and Li returned more than 110,000 yuan to Feng and paid interest.
The procuratorate appealed in accordance with the law and the judgment was commuted.
Feng was dissatisfied with the second-instance judgment and applied to the Sichuan Provincial High Court for a retrial, which was rejected, so he applied to the Dazhou Municipal Procuratorate for supervision. After review, the Dazhou Municipal Procuratorate held that the gift in this case was invalid and that all the donated property should be returned, and accordingly submitted a protest to the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate.
On the issue of whether the act of a husband and wife's external gift is partially or completely invalid during the existence of the husband and wife relationship, some regions such as Jiangsu Province and Beijing Municipality have issued relevant adjudication opinions, but Sichuan and other places have not made clear provisions, and the standards for handling such cases in judicial practice are different. Based on the facts and evidence ascertained by the examination, the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate held that: First, the donation involved in the case was an invalid civil act, and its legal consequence should be the return of all the property, and the final judgment was indeed wrong in the application of law. Second, the final judgment partially returned the donated property, directly dividing the joint property of the husband and wife, and exceeded the litigation claims of the parties. Third, the final judgment indirectly endorses the gift that violates good customs, harms the property rights and interests of the spouse who is not at fault, and is inconsistent with the core values of honesty and fairness. On May 23, 2022, the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate filed a protest with the Sichuan Provincial High Court.
The Sichuan Provincial High People's Court adopted the procuratorate's protest opinion in the retrial, and made a civil judgment on October 31, 2022, changing the judgment to Li to return more than 230,000 yuan to Feng (that is, transferring more than 370,000 yuan and deducting more than 140,000 yuan from Li's advance) and paying interest.
Half or full refund.
How is it determined? After the implementation of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, general provisions have been adopted on the determination of "public order and good customs", and some provisions have a large room for flexible interpretation, which is manifested in the difficulty of accurately distinguishing between different factors of legal acts and the impact on the effectiveness of legal acts when they violate public order and good customs. As a result, there are three types of judgments in judicial practice: the validity of the gift, the partial validity of the gift, and the invalidity of the gift.
Disputes over the donation of joint property between husband and wife to a third party should not be simply characterized, but should be analyzed according to the specific circumstances of the case, and in addition to considering "public order and good customs", the subjective mentality of the donor and the donee should also be comprehensively examined.
In this case, the property donated by He to a third party, Li, especially the transfer of money with special meanings such as "520" and "1314", obviously did not belong to the daily needs of He and Feng's families, nor was it an act of consensus between husband and wife, so it did not comply with the provisions of Article 17 of the Marriage Law and the Judicial Interpretation (1) of the Marriage Law on the equal right to dispose of property of husband and wife. The purpose of transferring and receiving money between He and Li was to maintain the extramarital affair, and the extramarital affair and transfer behavior of the two violated Feng's legitimate rights as a spouse, and was subjectively not bona fide.
Based on the above analysis, the gift is contrary to public order and good customs and should be found to be invalid. Article 157 of China's Civil Code clearly stipulates that property acquired on the basis of invalid acts shall be returned.
In this case, the procuratorate supervised the act of one of the husband and wife donating the joint property of the husband and wife to a third party without authorization, infringing on the property rights and interests of one of the spouses, and demanded that the third party return all the donated property, which not only protected the lawful rights and interests of the innocent party and the children in the marital relationship, but also prompted the provincial procuratorate and the court to reach a judicial consensus on this type of case and uniformly clarify the standards for the application of law.