Husband hid child, debts before wedding — can the marriage be annulled?

A woman discovered four months into her marriage that her husband had concealed both a child born outside the marriage and a large amount of debt.

The story of the woman, identified only as A, was shared recently on YTN Radio's legal advice program "Cho In-seop's Counseling Center."

A had dated her husband, who works in interior design, for three years before they married. Shortly after the wedding, a piece of court mail revealed that he had a 5-year-old child from a previous relationship — a child he had never mentioned. The husband had also failed to pay child support and had already received a court enforcement order.

He had not raised any of this during their courtship or at any point before the wedding.

His pre-marriage claim that he owned an apartment and had substantial savings also turned out to be false. Searching through his drawers, A found documents for a mortgage on the apartment, a personal loan and a credit card loan, revealing that he was deep in debt.

When she confronted him, the husband said it had been "a mistake from the past" and that he had not told her because he "didn't want to lose" her. He then suggested that since they were now married, they could simply pay off the debts together.

A said she felt as though her "entire life had been defrauded" and sought legal advice on whether she could seek an annulment rather than a divorce, whether she could claim alimony if she did divorce, and whether she would be liable for her husband's debts.

Attorney Shin Jin-hee, who reviewed the case, said that if a spouse deliberately concealed the existence of a child born outside the marriage and debts large enough to make a normal married life impossible, the marriage would likely qualify as "marriage by fraud" under civil law and be eligible for annulment. Shin added that the Supreme Court has recognized such facts as material — meaning the other party would not have married had they known. However, she cautioned that an annulment suit must be filed within three months of learning of the fraud, a statutory exclusion period that must be strictly observed.

Shin said that even if the three-month window had passed and an annulment was no longer available, a judicial divorce remained an option. She said the husband bore responsibility for deceiving his wife and completely destroying her trust, making it likely that grounds for a contested divorce would be recognized and that alimony could be claimed. She added that even if an annulment were granted, the marriage would not be entirely erased from the record — once the annulment was finalized and reported, the fact of the annulment would be entered in the family relations register.