'Divorced After Reconciliation' Couples… Court Rules "If Total Marriage Period Exceeds 5 Years, Pension Division Applies"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] A court ruling has determined that even if a civil servant's spouse divorced, remarried, and then divorced again, the entire marriage period must be combined and if it exceeds five years, pension division should be applied.

On the 20th, according to the legal community, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 14 (Chief Judge Sanghoon Lee) ruled in favor of plaintiff A in a lawsuit filed against the Government Employees Pension Service, requesting the cancellation of the denial of the pension division claim.

The court stated, "As spousal cooperation is recognized during the marriage period of employment, the portion of the civil servant's retirement pension rights corresponding to that period is property achieved through the cooperation of both spouses," and added, "Even if the couple remarried after divorce, it cannot be considered that they did not contribute to forming the right to receive the civil servant pension during the first marriage period."

Furthermore, the court ruled, "Excluding the first marriage period from the calculation simply because the continuity of the marriage period was interrupted due to remarriage contradicts the purpose of the pension division system, which aims to strengthen the retirement income security of civil servant spouses, as well as the law’s objective to contribute to the livelihood stability and welfare improvement of survivors."

A married B, a civil servant, in 1985, divorced in 2013, remarried the same year, and divorced again in 2016.

When B retired, A filed a 'division payment claim' with the Government Employees Pension Service in March 2018, requesting a share of B’s pension under the 'Old Government Employees Pension Act' before its revision.

According to the old Government Employees Pension Act, if the spouse’s marriage period during the civil servant’s employment exceeds five years, a certain portion of the pension amount is payable.

However, the pension service rejected the claim, stating, "The first marriage period between A and B ended in divorce before the pension division system’s implementation date of January 1, 2016, so the division claim is not possible," and "B’s civil servant employment period during the second marriage is less than five years, so division payment is also not applicable."

A argued in the lawsuit that "in cases of divorce followed by remarriage, the period before the divorce should also be included in the marriage period."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.