Thirty years of "divorce" separation invalid, now sued for division of billions in assets
Recently, a divorce dispute case involving a claim for substantial property, handled by the Wang Tengfeng lawyer team from Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm, was ultimately concluded through a settlement after the opposing party made concessions.
In August 1978, Mr. Zhang and Ms. Zhao registered their marriage. In May 1990, Mr. Zhang, citing the breakdown of their relationship, wrote a "Declaration" stating that he would take his personal belongings and move out, meaning they would no longer live together from then on, and Ms. Zhao agreed and signed it. In July 1993, Mr. Zhang and Ms. Zhao signed a "Divorce Agreement" stipulating child custody and property division, even stating, "After both parties sign, they consider themselves to have dissolved the marital relationship, with no interference in any matters; should any issues arise, each party bears their own responsibility." Mr. Zhang, who had no knowledge of the law, believed that this "Divorce Agreement" completed the divorce procedures, signifying that he was already divorced. Subsequently, the two lived separately with no further contact. Alone and helpless, Mr. Zhang body penniless ， and wandering outside, he decided [1] Entrepreneurship and Development 。
[2] After years of hard work, Mr. Zhang's career flourished, his business grew larger, and he amassed a fortune worth hundreds of millions. In 2010, the successful Mr. Zhang met Ms. Sun, and the two fell in love and spent a decade together. In 2020, Ms. Sun gave birth to a son for Mr. Zhang, and having not experienced the joy of family for a long time, Mr. Zhang quickly spread the news. However, when Ms. Zhao learned of this, the "divorce" bomb that had been hidden for thirty years finally exploded.
[3] Ms. Zhao filed a lawsuit against Mr. Zhang in court, accusing him of not returning home for many years after marriage, cohabiting with Ms. Sun and having a child, seriously violating marital fidelity obligations, and even claiming to sue Mr. Zhang for criminal bigamy. Ms. Zhao demanded a divorce, ownership of two properties under Mr. Zhang's name worth a total of 50 million yuan, and a one-time compensation of 100 million yuan, totaling 150 million yuan. This put Mr. Zhang under immense pressure and a great sense of injustice—how could it be that they had already "divorced" 30 years ago, yet now he had to split the massive wealth he had accumulated through hard work?
Due to the fact that the case not only involves a large amount of property, but also involves significant criminal and civil handover cases, Mr. Zhang dare not easily entrust the case to any law firm. He visited everywhere, compared prices, and finally found the Wang Tengfeng legal team from Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm, which specializes in difficult and complex cases, with a lucky mentality. After some negotiations with Lawyer Wang, he was deeply convinced by his innovative strategy and methods for handling major and complex cases. Therefore, he immediately decided to entrust the case to the team of Lawyer Wang Tengfeng from Zhiming Law Firm.
[5] After taking the case, Lawyer Wang Tengfeng, along with Lawyer Cao Guanghui and their assistants, carefully reviewed the case and found that over the past 30 years, Mr. Zhang had not only had no marital life with Ms. Zhao but also no life interactions. From being penniless when he moved out to becoming a successful person today, Mr. Zhang relied entirely on his own efforts, and the company was developed after he "left with nothing." However, the most troublesome issue in the case was still the "marriage certificate." On the surface, Mr. Zhang and Ms. Zhao were still nominally legally married at the time of the lawsuit, so Ms. Zhao's demand for divorce and property division seemed quite reasonable. The case was temporarily at a dead end, appearing to be an unsolvable one.
But in the eyes of Lawyer Wang Tengfeng, this was quickly simplified, and he cleverly broke through this dilemma by using strategic thinking and creative methods of literary and artistic rights litigation. He hit the nail on the head and pointed out the key to this case; The two of them lived separately like a divorce, without interfering with each other; And during their brief marriage, Ms. Zhao made significant mistakes before marriage. It was only because Mr. Zhang lacked legal knowledge that he did not follow the legal procedures for divorce, not as Ms. Zhao claimed; Betrayal of Family;Lawyer Wang skillfully employed a combination of reason, emotion, and legal principles, forcing the opposing party to retreat and compromise, significantly reducing their exorbitant demands.A settlement was reached with our side, and the case was ultimately concluded with a mediation document.
On a certain day in March 2021, we received the mediation agreement for this case. We not only significantly reduced the amount of property to be divided, but also greatly extended the payment period. Lawyer Cao immediately informed Mr. Zhang of this great news. Mr. Zhang couldn't hide his joy and sent a thank-you message with great excitement (please see the picture below for details), once again verifying the magic of literary and artistic rights litigation!
