[Yonhap news Photo ]
A high-profile divorce suit filed by one of South Korea's richest women took a twist Thursday after an appeals court ruled in favor of her husband, ordering a new trial at a different place, citing jurisdiction of the court.
The appellate court ruled that a lower court in Seoul should take over and judge the case from the beginning, nullifying an earlier decision by a district court in Suwon, 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of Seoul.
Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin, who is the eldest daughter of Lee Kun-hee, the ailing patriarch of South Korea's largest conglomerate Samsung Group, filed a divorce suit in October 2014 against her 47-year-old bodyguard-turned husband, Lim Woo-jae.
On January 14, the Suwon district court ruled in favor of Lee Boo-jin, but Lim, who is a standing advisor of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, appealed. Lim called for a new retrial in Seoul where the couple had lived together until they were separated. His estranged wife still lives in Seoul alone.
The husband has also filed a separate suit, requesting a small amount of alimony and the division of assets worth 1.2 trillion won (1.07 billion US dollars).
Lee Boo-jin, 45, was listed by US business magazine Forbes as one of the world's 100 most powerful women. Hotel Shilla operates South Korea's second-largest duty-free chain after Lotte with her wealth linked to other group units through a complex web of cross-shareholding.
They married in August 1999 in the male version of "Cinderella", but their fairy-tale romance got into trouble two years ago for unknown reasons, triggering plenty of rumors and speculation.
Lim was known to have met his wife while he served as her bodyguard, but he once said in a newspaper interview that he had attempted suicide due to stress and pressure from the tycoon's family.
The suit came after Lee Kun-hee, 74, was hospitalized in May 2014 after being hit by a stroke. His only son, Samsung Electronics vice chairman Jay Y. Lee, now controls the group.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
