Husband Cleared of 'Killing Pregnant Wife' Charges Wins Insurance Claim Lawsuit After 6 Years

Defendant NongHyup Life Insurance
Must Prepay 60 Million Won to Husband and Children

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Gyumin] A husband who was acquitted of charges of killing his pregnant Cambodian wife by faking a traffic accident to claim insurance money won a lawsuit he filed against the insurance company.

On the 23rd at 2 p.m., Judge Kim Sunhee of the Civil Division 9 at the Seoul Western District Court ruled in favor of Lee (52) in his insurance claim lawsuit against NongHyup Life Insurance, ordering "Defendant NongHyup Life Insurance to pay approximately 34,816,410 KRW to Lee and 24,000,000 KRW to Lee's daughter."

The first trial was scheduled for June, but the hearing was resumed to hear both parties' positions regarding the change of the insurance policyholder from the wife to the husband a few months before the accident, and the hearing concluded on the 12th of last month.

The insurance claim lawsuit was reopened following Lee's acquittal on the murder charge. In August 2014, Lee was driving a van with his wife A on board when they collided with a truck parked on the highway shoulder. As a result of the accident, B died.

At the time, the prosecution considered the amount of insurance money and premiums and indicted Lee on suspicion of murder aimed at claiming A's insurance money. The case resulted in an acquittal at the first trial, a guilty verdict for murder and a life sentence at the second trial. However, the Supreme Court overturned the murder charge as not guilty and remanded the case with a ruling that Lee was guilty of violating the Special Act on Traffic Accident Handling. Ultimately, Lee was sentenced to two years imprisonment for violating the Special Act but acquitted of murder.

Since then, starting in 2016, Lee filed lawsuits against insurance companies claiming death benefits under contracts where A was the insured. It is known that a total of 33 such insurance contracts were made, with insurance money amounting to approximately 9.58 billion KRW.

Recently, Lee won three out of five lawsuits filed against other insurance companies. The court focused on A's Korean language proficiency. The insurance companies argued the contracts were invalid, claiming that the terms and contract contents were difficult for A to understand properly. However, the court ruled in Lee's favor, stating that A had steadily studied Korean after marriage and had no significant communication problems.