Top court to review SK chairman’s divorce case appeal

The Supreme Court will proceed with hearings on the divorce case of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to review the lower court’s ruling that ordered Chey to pay 1.38 trillion won (US$1 billion) in property division to his estranged wife.

The top court did not dismiss Chey’s appeal, filed on July 8, before the midnight deadline on Friday, allowing further review on the case.

Chey, the chairman of South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate, was ordered by an appellate court in May to pay 1.38 trillion won in property division and 2 billion won in solatium to his estranged wife, Roh Soh-yeong, in the most expensive divorce suit in the country’s history.

Chey appealed the ruling, claiming errors in the calculation of Roh’s contribution to the company’s growth. The appellate court had determined the couple’s combined wealth to be 4 trillion won, with a division rate of 65 percent for Chey and 35 percent for Roh.

The SK Group chairman argued the court had made an error with regard to whether his stocks in the company are subject to the division and how much they are worth.

The court corrected its calculation error but did not change its conclusion, saying the error does not affect the ratio and subject of the property division.

The Supreme Court’s dismissal of the appeal means Chey’s case did not meet any of the six legally defined criteria for an appeal, such as a wrongful interpretation of the law or an interpretation different from past precedent.

Chey and Roh, the only daughter of former President Roh Tae-woo, married in 1988 and have three children together.

Chey announced plans to divorce in 2015, admitting he had an extramarital lover with whom he had a child. Two years later, he filed for a divorce settlement.

Roh raised a countersuit in 2019, demanding half of the SK shares owned by Chey in the property division.