Guiding Case No. 66 Lei Moumou v. Song Moumou Divorce Dispute

Approved by the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court on September 19, 2016

Referee Points

If one party conceals, transfers, sells, or destroys the common property of the husband and wife during or before the divorce proceedings, or forges debts in an attempt to occupy the property of the other party, when dividing the common property of the husband and wife in divorce, the provisions can be divided into little or no division of property according to Civil Code of the People's Republic of China.

Case Review

The plaintiff Lei Moumou (female) and the defendant Song Moumou registered their marriage on May 19, 2003. Both parties remarried and had no children after the marriage. After the marriage, the two parties lost their relationship due to trivial matters, and conflicts arose in the first half of 2013, and they separated in February 2014. Lei Moumou filed a lawsuit in March 2014 for a divorce from Song Moumou, but after the court rejected it, the relationship between the two parties did not improve. In January 2015, Lei Moumou again sued the court for divorce and the division of the joint property of the husband and wife according to law. Song Moumou believes that the relationship between husband and wife has not broken down and does not agree to divorce.

Lei Moumou claimed that Song Moumou had a joint deposit of 370,000 yuan in the account of Postal Savings Bank of China, and submitted deposit and withdrawal vouchers and transfer vouchers as evidence. Song Moumou claimed that the 370,000 yuan came from the pre-marital house demolition compensation and pensions, and there is still about 200,000 yuan (including pensions of 14,322.48 yuan), and submitted account records, judgments, case receipts and other evidence.

Song Moumou claimed that Lei Moumou had a joint deposit of 250,000 yuan, and asked to divide it according to law. Lei Moumou did not approve this. In the first-instance trial, she submitted the transaction details of the account ending in 4179 in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China since January 26, 2014, showing that the balance of the account as of December 21, 2014 was 262.37 yuan. During the trial of the second instance, at Song Moumou's application, the court obtained the bank flow details of Lei Moumou's above-mentioned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China account since November 26, 2012, showing that Lei Moumou withdrew 195,000 yuan through the ATM on April 30, 2013. The 195,000 yuan in the account was transferred to Lei Mouqi, an outsider, by means of transfer and card withdrawal. Song Moumou believed that the deposit was the income from the rental of the house before marriage and should be jointly owned by both parties, and Lei Moumou was about to transfer the joint deposit of the husband and wife before the divorce. Lei Moumou proposed that the deposit was the income from the operation of the restaurant, and initially claimed that the money had been used for the joint expenses of the husband and wife, and later claimed to be used to repay his niece's loan, but Lei Moumou did not provide corresponding evidence for his claim. In addition, Lei Moumou agreed during the trial that the deposits in their respective names belonged to them, and that he paid Song Moumou a deposit of 100,000 yuan separately, but Lei Moumou later regretted it and did not agree to pay.

Referee Result

On April 16, 2015, the People's Court of Chaoyang District, Beijing made a civil judgment (2015): the divorce of Lei Moumou and Song Moumou was approved; the deposits in ICBC account ending 4179 belong to Lei Moumou, and the deposits in the Postal Savings Bank of China accounts under Song Moumou's account ending in 7101, 9389 and 1156 belong to Song Moumou, and other property and debt issues have been dealt with. 

After the sentence was pronounced, Song Moumou appealed, and made a request for the division of deposits in the name of Lei Moumou, the joint property of the husband and wife. On October 19, 2015, the Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People's Court rendered the Civil Judgment (2015): the other judgments of the first-instance judgment were upheld, the third item of the first-instance judgment was revoked, and the deposits in ICBC account ending 4179 belong to Lei Moumou, and the deposits in the Postal Savings Bank of China account ending in 7101, 9389 and 1156 under Song Moumou's name belong to Song Moumou. Song Moumou should be paid 120,000 yuan within seven days from the date when the judgment took effect.

Reason for Referee

The effective judgment of the court held that the marriage relationship is based on the feelings of husband and wife. Song Moumou and Lei Moumou had conflicts due to trivial matters in the process of living together. After the court ruled against divorce, the relationship between the two parties has not improved. After the court mediation, they could not reconcile. The relationship between the husband and wife has indeed broken down.