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A court has ordered a woman to pay her ex-husband 50 million won ($35,300) in damages after she attacked him with a knife in a failed attempt to kill him, suspecting him of having an affair.
Judge Kim Chang-yong of the Anyang Branch of Suwon District Court ruled partly in favor of the ex-husband, identified as A, in a civil suit he filed against his ex-wife, identified as B, seeking about 100 million won in compensation, according to legal sources Wednesday. The ruling was handed down in June.
The court ordered B to pay A approximately 51.4 million won, covering medical expenses A had already incurred, lost income he would have earned had the attack not occurred, and compensation for emotional distress.
The incident took place in February 2023 at an apartment in Gyeonggi Province. B, who had been receiving treatment for schizophrenia, had fallen into the delusion that A was having an affair with another woman, according to the investigation. She knocked A down and stabbed him multiple times with a knife before responding officers saved his life.
The couple divorced following the incident. In the divorce proceedings, the court ruled that B, who bore responsibility for the breakdown of the marriage, must pay A 50 million won in alimony.
In the criminal case, B had already received a five-year prison sentence for attempted murder. The Supreme Court upheld the sentence in April 2024, following rulings by the first and second instance courts. The criminal court noted that while A had fortunately survived, he sustained injuries requiring 12 weeks of recovery and had to undergo partial removal of an organ, and that the location and severity of the wounds meant the attack could have been fatal. The court acknowledged, however, that B had been in a state of diminished mental capacity, saying she appeared to have committed the crime while her psychiatric symptoms had worsened.
B and A did not reach a settlement during the criminal proceedings. B deposited 30 million won with the court during the first-instance trial and an additional 3 million won during the appeal, but A refused to accept either payment and agreed to let B reclaim the deposited funds.
A then filed a civil suit against B. The court recognized damages of more than 50 million won.
The court found that B had committed an unlawful act against A through the attempted murder and was liable to compensate him for both financial and emotional harm.
The court recognized about 20 million won in medical expenses, about 20 million won in lost income, and about 20 million won in compensation for emotional distress. From that total, it deducted about 10 million won that B's mother had already sent to A's mother for medical costs, arriving at a final award of approximately 50 million won.
The ruling is now final. Both parties accepted the first-instance judgment.
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