Introduction: During the marriage, the husband transferred over 1.3 million yuan to Chapter 3. After discovering this, can the wife sue the third party for the return of the money? The senior lawyers of the Dao Hua Family Law Firm will guide you through a real case.

Basic Case Details:

Wang Huang, the wife, and Xie Cheng, the husband, were married in 2008. In 2019, Xie Cheng met Zhu Mou and quickly established a romantic relationship. During the extramarital affair, as Zhu Mou was a female anchor on a network platform, Xie Cheng transferred a large amount of money and made numerous live streaming tips to Zhu Mou to please and flatter her, totaling over 1.4 million yuan. After learning about this, Wang Huang sued the court to require Zhu Mou to return the aforementioned 1.4 million yuan. The defendant Zhu Mou argued: The amount of money transferred by Xie Cheng to me meets his normal spiritual life consumption needs and does not exceed the power of disposition of the joint property of Huang and Xie as a couple. Xie Cheng has the equal power of disposition. Moreover, as a network anchor, I provide services, and Xie Cheng's tipping as a consumer is a consumption behavior, not a gift for the purpose of romance.

Court Trial :

After the intermediate court's trial, it was held that during the marriage between Huang and Xie, Zhu Mou had an improper relationship with Xie, which violated public order and good customs and should be morally condemned. While in the marriage relationship with Huang, Xie transferred the joint property of the couple to Zhu Mou through his bank account, Alipay, WeChat, and online platform tips, as well as transferring the joint property of the couple to Zhu Mou through Huang's bank account, infringing on Huang's legitimate property rights. Xie's actions violated the duty of fidelity between husband and wife and were contrary to public order and good customs. His gift to Zhu Mou should be deemed invalid. Based on the actual amount of money gifted by Xie to Zhu Mou, it was ordered that Zhu Mou should return 1,387,083 yuan to Huang.

Commentary by Dao Hua Lawyers:

Tang Yunhong, a lawyer, pointed out: This case is a typical case of a third party in a marital affair damaging the rights and interests of the legitimate spouse, which belongs to a gift contract dispute. When enacting the Civil Code, China added the principle of "families should establish excellent family customs, promote family values, and pay attention to the construction of family civilization", requiring that couples should be faithful to each other and respect each other. In this case, Xie's act of gifting the couple's property to the third party due to the romantic relationship, as well as the act of the third party interfering with the couple's feelings and obtaining benefits, both violate public order and good customs and are contrary to the value orientation of conjugal fidelity. Article 153, Paragraph 2 of the Civil Code states that "civil legal acts that violate public order and good customs are invalid" and also negates the gift between Xie and Zhu Mou. Under the premise of the invalidity of the gift contract, Huang, as the legitimate spouse, has the right to claim the return of the property as joint marital property.