Home Typical case Divorce Successful Case | Woman Deceived by a Married Man, Wumei Successfully Secures Mental Damage Compensation for Her.

Successful Case | Woman Deceived by a Married Man, Wumei Successfully Secures Mental Damage Compensation for Her.

2022-06-29

Key Points of Judgment

  1. Spouses shall remain exclusive and loyal to their marriage and emotional relationship. This is a requirement of basic socialist ethics. Infidelity in marriage and family violates public order and good customs, and such acts shall be admonished.
  2. A citizen’s general personal right shall be protected by law. Personal dignity is an essential component of general personal rights. It constitutes the fundamental social status entitled to every citizen, as well as the basic respect due from others and the society. It also embodies a citizen’s self-recognition of personal value and the minimum social respect entitled thereto.
  3. During interpersonal communication between two parties, if one party intentionally conceals their marital status and fails to treat the other party as an equal civil subject with personal dignity, such act infringes upon the other party’s general personal right. General personal right falls within the scope of personal rights. Where personal rights are infringed, the infringing party shall bear corresponding liability for mental damage compensation.

Case Brief

Hu got married in 2001, and her spouse passed away in the same year. She gave birth to a posthumous child the following year, and never remarried or had any other children thereafter.
Wang registered his marriage with Li in February 2003. They had their eldest daughter in April of the same year, their second daughter in January 2011, and divorced by agreement in June 2017.
During the existence of his marriage with Li, Wang falsely claimed to Hu that he was unmarried and took the initiative to pursue her. Under the pretext of marriage, he repeatedly deceived Hu into having sexual relations with him, which eventually resulted in Hu’s pregnancy. After Hu became pregnant, Wang tried every means to persuade her to have an abortion. In 2015, Wang accompanied Hu to a maternal and child health hospital for an early pregnancy induced abortion, and signed on behalf of the patient and family member on the surgical informed consent form.
In early 2017, Hu discovered the truth that Wang was married and had children. She resolutely ended their romantic relationship. Nevertheless, Wang insisted that he had already divorced, and continued to harass Hu’s relatives, friends and colleagues, severely disrupting her normal work and daily life. Accordingly, Hu filed a lawsuit with the court, claiming mental damage compensation from Wang.

Disputed Issues

  1. Whether the defendant Wang concealed his marital status during his relationship with the plaintiff Hu.
  2. Whether Wang’s concealment infringed upon Hu’s general personal right.
  3. Whether Wang shall pay mental damage compensation to the plaintiff Hu.

Court Judgment

The court of first instance held that the defendant Wang infringed upon the plaintiff Hu’s general personal right. Wang shall pay Hu mental damage compensation of 50,000 yuan within five days from the date when the judgment takes effect.
The court of second instance heard the case and affirmed the original judgment.

Lawyer’s Comment

Should a philandering man who cheats during his marriage be liable for tort to the "unwitting mistress" victim?
As we all know, spouses have a mutual obligation of loyalty to each other. If one party has improper sexual relations with other opposite-sex individuals, cohabits with others, or even commits bigamy during the marriage, the at-fault party shall bear the legal liability of paying mental damage compensation to the innocent party. However, there is no statutory obligation of loyalty between the philandering man and the victim, so the above provisions of the Marriage Law cannot be applied. This is also the root cause why many ill-intentioned philandering men unscrupulously deceive and play with kind-hearted women. Then, after being deceived and abandoned by the philandering man, should kind-hearted women swallow their grievances, admit bad luck, and let the philandering man get away with it? The answer is definitely no. This case provides a good way for kind-hearted women to legally protect their legitimate rights and interests—they can claim mental damage compensation from the philandering man on the grounds of infringement of personal rights!

The first difficulty in this case: How to prove that the woman was an "unwitting mistress"?

It is relatively easy to prove when the defendant’s marriage started, how long it lasted, and when it was dissolved. But how to prove that the plaintiff Hu did not know about Wang’s marital and family situation during their relationship, and that Wang intentionally concealed the facts? Therefore, the collection of evidence is very important. In this case, under the guidance of lawyers, Hu repeatedly obtained information records and call recordings in which Wang denied being married and having children. Later, after Hu clearly learned that she had grasped the fact that Wang was married and had children, Wang continued to deceive her, claiming that he would definitely divorce his current wife and be with Hu, which indirectly proved that he had been in a relationship with Hu during his marriage.
Therefore, parties should establish the awareness of protecting and collecting evidence. During the relationship between men and women, there will be many calls and chat records, many of which are very powerful evidence in the litigation process. When the relationship between the two parties breaks down, do not delete relevant records out of anger; be sure to take screenshots and save them. In this case, the chat records between the plaintiff and the defendant are strong evidence to prove that the defendant concealed his marital status. Based on his behavior, it was sufficient to make the plaintiff mistakenly believe that the two were indeed in a relationship for the purpose of getting married, leading the plaintiff to have sexual relations with the defendant on the basis of wrong understanding. With this evidence, no matter how the defendant quibbled in court, he could not deny the fact that he concealed his marital and childbearing status to have a relationship with Hu.
Secondly, when claiming compensation for damages, the relevant bills generated when seeking medical treatment for injuries caused by the other party are also very important evidence materials. In this case, the defendant caused the plaintiff to become pregnant and have an induced abortion, and the plaintiff’s physical health was also harmed. For this reason, the plaintiff claimed that the defendant should compensate for medical expenses, transportation expenses, lost wages, and nutrition expenses totaling 10,000 yuan. However, the plaintiff was unable to provide relevant evidence to prove the existence of these expenses, resulting in the court not supporting her claim for medical expenses compensation. In fact, this is quite a pity, as the total of these expenses is not a small amount. When encountering such a situation, one should be prepared, establish the awareness of protecting and collecting evidence, and do not discard relevant bills at will, so as not to end up losing both money and reputation out of anger.

The second difficulty in this case: How to help the victim realize the claim for mental damage compensation?

As we all know, even for men and women in a marital relationship, if the at-fault party’s behavior does not meet the several fault situations specified in Article 46 of the Marriage Law when getting divorced, it is difficult for the innocent party to obtain mental damage compensation. What’s more, there is no marital relationship between the two parties in this case, making it even more difficult to claim mental damage compensation. How did this case help the victim Hu obtain mental damage compensation?
First of all, the plaintiff’s husband had long passed away, and the marital relationship had ended. The plaintiff had a relationship with the defendant under his deception. During their relationship, the defendant concealed his marital and childbearing status, placing the relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant in an improper male-female relationship. In the relationship between the two parties, the plaintiff was not at fault, but because the defendant developed a romantic relationship with the plaintiff without divorcing, forcing the plaintiff to become a third party in the defendant’s marriage unknowingly, which violated the principle of public order and good customs of society, reduced the plaintiff’s social evaluation, and infringed upon her personal dignity.
Secondly, personal dignity is an important part of the general personal rights enjoyed by citizens, and also an important category of citizens’ personal rights. When there is no legal male-female relationship between the two parties, one can protect their legitimate rights and interests by claiming tort. With the help of lawyers, the plaintiff Hu actively claimed that her personal dignity was infringed. From the collected WeChat chat records of the defendant, it can be seen that the defendant clearly denied being married during the chat with the plaintiff, which was sufficient to make the plaintiff believe that the two were indeed in a relationship for the purpose of getting married. This led the plaintiff to have a relationship with the defendant on the basis of wrong understanding, resulting in her pregnancy and induced abortion, which harmed her physical health. The defendant’s deceptive behavior was subjectively intentional, and in fact, he did not treat the plaintiff as an equal person, but as an auxiliary playmate outside his marriage. Therefore, based on the above facts, the plaintiff’s claim for mental damage compensation was supported by the court.

The third difficulty and highlight of this case: Successfully helping the victim obtain 50,000 yuan in mental damage compensation.

In March 2019, the lawyer team conducted a big data analysis of a total of 935 divorce judgments involving mental damage compensation due to one spouse’s infidelity made by courts across the country from the beginning of 2011 to February 2019. It was found that the amount of most mental damage compensation was concentrated within 20,000 yuan, and even a considerable number of cases supported mental damage compensation below 10,000 yuan. In this case, the lawyer team fully collected and sorted out a large amount of evidence to prove that the defendant had sufficient economic capacity, a high degree of fault, intentionally provided false witness testimony to evade legal sanctions, made contradictory statements many times, and could not give a reasonable explanation. He also took advantage of the plaintiff’s vulnerable position as a widow with a child, deceived her feelings for as long as six years, making the plaintiff an innocent, passive, and long-term third party, causing serious physical and mental harm to her. Thus, the team secured 50,000 yuan in mental damage compensation for the client.

Summary of this article

Marital infidelity is an immoral act condemned by the general public, and the object of the infidelity is even strongly despised and condemned by the public. However, in this case, there is another hidden truth behind the seemingly immoral appearance. The plaintiff Hu, who thought she had met true love, was forced to become the object of the defendant’s infidelity and was labeled as a "mistress". Without understanding the true situation of this case, public opinion is likely to one-sidedly condemn the plaintiff for interfering in others’ marriages, but after learning the truth, the plaintiff is actually a victim too. In the process of interpersonal communication between men and women, we should treat each other sincerely. Before confirming a romantic relationship, both parties should learn more about each other’s relationship background, such as whether they have a family or children. Do not be carried away by the feelings at that time and unconditionally listen only to the other party’s one-sided words.
In practice, there are many cases of deceiving feelings and money in the name of romantic relationship. There is no legally recognized legitimate relationship between the two parties, so it is difficult for the injured party to safeguard their rights. In this case, the plaintiff Hu lacked vigilance during the relationship, listened to the defendant Wang’s sweet words, invested too much emotion, and finally not only had an induced abortion but also was labeled as a "third party". She lost her feelings, damaged her health, and ruined her reputation. In addition, when encountering the situation of being an "unwitting mistress", we should dare to take up legal weapons to protect ourselves, not only to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests, but also to deter those who cheat in marriage.