Court orders sons to share inheritance after parents cut out daughters who 'never called on holidays'

A Seoul court has ruled that two daughters must receive a share of their parents' estate after the parents left nearly 1.5 billion won in property exclusively to their two sons, citing the daughters' failure to stay in touch on holidays and other occasions.

According to legal sources Saturday, Judge Kim Byeong-su of the Seoul Northern District Court's Civil Division 4 ruled in favor of the daughters in a lawsuit they filed against their brothers seeking the return of their legally guaranteed inheritance share, known as "yuilyubun." The judge ordered the brothers to complete the transfer of ownership registration for a portion of the real estate.

The parents had drawn up a will in 2005 dividing land and buildings in Jungnang-gu, Seoul, and other areas solely between their two sons — with the eldest receiving 55 percent of the estate and the second son 45 percent.

In 2017, one of the daughters, identified as B, announced she intended to file a lawsuit over the distribution. The parents responded by saying she had "barely called on holidays or birthdays" and had refused to attend their 80th birthday celebration even when asked.

The parents also said their sons had spent money they earned and saved over their lifetimes to pay off debts the parents had incurred and to repair buildings the parents owned. The parents then revised their will to explicitly exclude the daughters from inheriting any real estate. One of the parents died in September 2024.

The daughters, identified as A and B, filed suit against their two brothers demanding the return of their legally protected inheritance shares. The brothers argued that the property had been gifted to them during their parents' lifetime as compensation for supporting and financially contributing to the family, and should therefore be excluded from the pool of assets subject to redistribution.

The court, however, ruled that the brothers must return a portion of the inherited property to the sisters.

The court noted that the deceased's will "consistently described the two sons as having exclusively supported the deceased," adding that "the gift agreements appear to partly reflect an assessment of the sons' special contributions and efforts."

However, the court found that "even if the two sons covered some of the deceased's living expenses and medical bills, the value of the real estate is significantly greater than the costs the sons paid on the deceased's behalf, making it difficult to regard the entire property as compensation for their caregiving."

The court further said that "even assuming the daughters failed to fulfill their duty to support the deceased, treating the entire share of real estate gifted to each son as compensation for their contributions would produce an inequitable outcome among co-heirs and would substantially undermine the purpose of the legally guaranteed inheritance system."

The court also took into account that the real estate constituted the bulk of the deceased's assets at the time of the gift, and that the daughters had each inherited only 15 million won ($11,000) and 20 million won, respectively — a fraction of what the sons received.