The first mediation in the remand trial for property division between Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, and Roh Soh-yeong, director of Art Center Nabi, ended without a conclusion. The court did not halt mediation and decided to set another date when Chey can appear to hold a second mediation session.
The Seoul High Court Family Division 1 (Presiding Judge Lee Sang-ju) opened the first mediation session in the remand trial for divorce and property division between Chey and Roh at 10 a.m. on the 13th. The mediation ended after about an hour.
Mediation is a procedure in which the parties attempt to reach a settlement before the court issues a ruling. If mediation is reached, it has the same effect as a finalized judgment. In addition to the amount of property division, the parties can negotiate conditions that are difficult to specify in detail by judgment, such as timing and method of payment. If mediation fails, the court will recalculate the property division amount in line with the Supreme Court's reasoning and issue a ruling.
Only Roh appeared in person for the mediation. Chey did not appear, and only his legal team attended. After the mediation ended, Roh's attorney said, "We agreed to proceed with the second mediation as soon as possible on a date when Chey can attend."
Roh came to court wearing a black jacket and skirt. She did not answer reporters' questions such as "SK shares have more than tripled; do you think the gains should be reflected in the property division?" and "Was there any progress toward a settlement?"
Chey and Roh married in September 1988 and had three children. In 2015, however, Chey disclosed the existence of a child born out of wedlock, and the marriage effectively broke down.
The litigation began when Chey applied for divorce mediation in July 2017. When mediation fell through, the case proceeded to a formal lawsuit in February 2018. Opposing the divorce at first, Roh filed a countersuit in December 2019, saying she would agree to the divorce and seeking roughly half of Chey's SK shares as property division.
In the first trial in Dec. 2022, the court ordered Chey to pay Roh 100 million won in consolation money and 66.5 billion won in property division. At that time, the court did not broadly recognize Chey's SK shares as subject to property division and viewed Roh's contribution to the formation of the assets as limited.
The appellate ruling changed the outcome significantly. The Seoul High Court raised the consolation money to 2 billion won and ordered Chey to pay Roh 1.3808 trillion won in property division. It included Chey's SK equity as a subject of property division and concluded that 35% of the total assets should go to Roh.
At the core of the appellate court's reasoning was 30 billion won from former President Roh Tae-woo's side. Roh's side argued that this money laid the foundation for SK Group's growth and thus Roh's contribution to the rise in SK share value should be recognized. The appellate court accepted the claim and evaluated the former president's intangible support as a contribution to asset formation.
In Oct. last year, the Supreme Court ordered a rehearing of this part. If the 30 billion won from the former president's side was illegal funds, then even if the money flowed into SK, it cannot be reflected as Roh's contribution in the property division process. However, it affirmed as is the appellate court's recognition of 2 billion won in consolation money.
The issues in the remand trial are whether Chey's SK shares can be considered subject to property division and to what extent Roh's contribution can be recognized. The recent surge in SK hynix's share price is also a variable. The value of assets subject to property division is usually calculated based on when the trial on the merits concludes. Depending on whether the reference point is this remand trial or Apr. 2024, when the appellate arguments ended, the division amount could change.
If the two sides cannot reach a settlement in mediation, the scope of property division and the method of payment will be determined by the court.