Husband Cheats on Wife with Female Streamer, Rewards and Transfers to the Third Party; Can the Wife Sue for Full Return? The Court Has Ruled!

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 a refund? Senior lawyers from the Dao Hua Marriage and Family Law Firm will guide you through a real case.

Basic case situation:

Wife Huang Mou and husband Xie Mou were registered as married in 2008. In 2019, after Xie Mou met Zhu Mou, they quickly established a romantic relationship. During the extramarital affair, because Zhu Mou was a female anchor on a certain online platform, Xie Mou, in order to please and flatter Zhu Mou, transferred a large amount of money and made numerous live streaming tips to Zhu Mou through live streaming rewards, totaling over 1.4 million yuan. Upon learning of this, wife Huang Mou 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 Mou to me meets his normal spiritual life consumption needs and does not exceed the power of disposition of the joint property of Huang Mou and Xie Mou as a couple. Xie Mou has the equal power of disposition. Moreover, as a network anchor, I provide services, and Xie Mou's tips as a consumer are a consumption behavior, not a gift for the purpose of romance.

Court trial：

The intermediate people's court, after hearing, held that during the marriage relationship between Huang and Xie, Zhu had an improper relationship with Xie, which violated public order and good customs and should be morally condemned. During the marriage relationship between Huang and Xie, Xie, through her bank account, Alipay, WeChat, online service platform tips, and transferring the joint property of Huang and Xie from Huang's bank account to Zhu, infringed upon Huang's legitimate property rights and interests. Xie's actions violated the duty of conjugal fidelity and were even more contrary to public order and good customs. The gift to Zhu should be deemed invalid. According to the actual amount of money gifted by Xie to Zhu, Zhu is ordered to return 1,387,083 yuan to Huang.

Dowah Lawyer Analysis:

Mr. Tang Yunhong pointed out: This case is a typical case of extramarital affairs by a paramour causing damage to the legitimate spouse's rights and interests, which falls under the category of disputes over gift contracts. When enacting the Civil Code of our country, the provision "The family should establish a good family style, promote family values, and pay attention to the construction of family civilization" was added, 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 a romantic relationship, as well as the third party's interference in the couple's feelings and obtaining benefits, both violate public order and good customs and are contrary to the value orientation of couple's loyalty. Article 153, Paragraph 2 of the Civil Code stipulates that "civil legal acts that violate public order and good customs are invalid," which also negates the gift act between Xie and Zhu. Under the premise that the gift contract is invalid, Huang, as the legitimate spouse, has the right to require Zhu to return the property based on the couple's joint property.