April 29, #夫妻婚后无夫妻之实离婚女方判还32万彩礼#的话题冲上微博热搜第一. Recently, the Gulou Court of Fuzhou City, Fujian Province concluded a divorce dispute over bride price.
Basic facts of the case
In January 2020, Hu (the man) and Li (the woman) decided to get married in January 2021 after being introduced by a matchmaker and establishing a relationship. After negotiation between the two families, Hu needed to pay a wedding bride price of 500,000 yuan, although Hu's work income was not high, and his parents did not have any savings, but considering that he was over 30 years old, Hu still managed to scrape together 500,000 yuan as a wedding bride price to pay to Li.
After the marriage, there was a conflict between the two parties, and Li believed that the marriage was difficult to continue, so he filed for divorce in July 2022. Hu had no opinion on the divorce, but Hu believed that although he and Li had gone through the marriage registration formalities, there was a conflict between the two parties after the marriage, resulting in the two parties not living together, which met the legal requirements of "the two parties went through the marriage registration formalities but did not live together", which should be returned to the bride price, so he filed a lawsuit with the court to require Li to return the wedding bride price.
Li expressed to the court that he agreed to the divorce, but according to the records of Li's purchase of daily necessities, the corresponding items were sent to Hu's home address, and according to the chat between the two parties, it can be seen that Li has been living in Hu's house, and the two parties have been living together since marriage, and Hu's claim for the return of the bride price lacks factual and legal basis.
Heard by the courts
After trial, the Gulou Court found out that Hu and Li had triggered a divorce lawsuit due to emotional discord, and now both parties have agreed to divorce, which shows that the relationship has completely broken down. Regarding the part of the bride price claimed by Hu, the court held that although the two parties had registered their marriage and lived together, they had not been married for a long time and there was no fact of husband and wife, so the judgment allowed Hu and Li to divorce, and Li returned 320,000 yuan of bride price to Hu.
What the judge said
The Civil Code does not make a clear definition of "bride price", and when dealing with civil disputes, if there is no provision in the law, custom may be applied, but it must not violate public order and good customs, so when determining the scope of bride price, it should be based on the content of the bride price generally recognized by the local people, and comprehensively consider the local customs, time and method of payment, the value of the property, the giver and the recipient and other facts to comprehensively determine whether it is a bride price.
The Interpretation (I) of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the Marriage and Family Section clarifies three circumstances in which the bride price should be returned: (1) the parties have not registered their marriage, (2) the parties have registered their marriage but do not live together, and (3) the bride price is paid before marriage and causes difficulties for the person who pays the bride price. Although the registration of a marriage satisfies the formal requirements of marriage, whereby the marriage can be protected by law, consideration should be given to whether the spouses live together in the marriage. Therefore, the Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Use of Law in the Trial of Cases Involving Disputes Involving Bride Price comprehensively consider the formal requirements and substance of marriage, and add two new types of circumstances for the return of the bride price: First, the parties have already registered their marriage and live together, in which case the people's court generally does not support the request for the return of the bride price, but if the time they have lived together is short and the amount of the bride price is too high, they can support the return of part of the bride price. If the parties have lived together for a short period of time after marriage and then move towards divorce, and the purpose of living together in the marriage has not been achieved, and the amount of the bride price is determined to be too high based on factors such as local economic level and per capita disposable income, it is reasonable to return part of the bride price. Second, where the parties have not registered their marriage but have already lived together, and one party requests the return of the bride price paid in accordance with customs, it shall, on the basis of the actual use of the bride price and the dowry, comprehensively consider the facts such as living together and the circumstances of pregnancy, the fault of both parties, and combine local customs, to determine whether to return the bride price and the specific proportion of the return.
Judge reminds
As a traditional custom, the bride price is generally accepted by the masses and represents the blessing of marriage, but the happiness of marriage and family is not determined by the level of the bride price, and the appropriate amount of bride price can become an important carrier for both parties' expressions, but more attention should be paid to the care of family members for each other, the assumption of family responsibilities, active communication, and joint creation of a happy family. (Red Star News)
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