1. Case Overview
The plaintiff (our client) and the non-party spouse had maintained a harmonious family for approximately 45 years, raising two children together. However, the defendant knowingly approached the non-party despite being aware of his marital status and engaged in an extramarital relationship for more than two years. Shockingly, the defendant even moved into the apartment complex where the plaintiff’s family resided in order to continue the affair. As a result, not only the plaintiff but also the plaintiff’s children suffered severe emotional distress. Consequently, the plaintiff filed a claim for damages against the defendant.
2. Our Role and Litigation Strategy
Barun argued that:
- the defendant's conduct gravely disrupted the plaintiff's long-standing marital life, which had endured without issue for decades,
- the plaintiff and her children suffered not only emotional pain but also physical harm as a result,
- the defendant, as an employee of a major insurance company, had violated professional ethics and pursued extreme personal gain by misusing the non-party's credit card and borrowing large sums,
- even after the affair was exposed, the defendant showed no remorse and instead displayed contempt toward the plaintiff and her children, insisting on continuing the relationship, and
- recent lower court precedents have been recognizing higher amounts of damages for extramarital conduct.
We also emphasized that since the defendant had fully admitted to the affair, and given the severity of the wrongful conduct, it was appropriate for the defendant to bear the entirety of the litigation costs.
As a result, the court ordered the defendant to pay KRW 35 million in damages. In addition, while each party was ordered to bear its own attorney's fees, the defendant was held responsible for 82.5% of the remaining litigation costs.
3. Significance
Because the protection of rights such as privacy is often deemed more important than procedural interests, proving extramarital conduct—usually carried out in secrecy—has become increasingly difficult. Therefore, the damages system must not only compensate victims but also function as a preventive and punitive mechanism against wrongful conduct.
In practice, damages awarded in civil lawsuits for extramarital conduct are generally in the range of KRW 10–20 million. However, in this case, the court recognized KRW 35 million in damages, which is about twice the usual standard. This decision reflects both the social harm of extramarital conduct and the genuine emotional suffering of the victim, and stands as an important precedent in the trend of raising damage awards.
