The court ruled against a housewife who stabbed her husband with a kitchen knife during a physical conflict in their apartment in May last year, said court officials.
"She had the willful intention of killing or at least to injuring her husband, and thus inflicted harm on the insured person," said the court in its ruling, exempting the insurance companies from payment obligations.
The court also ruled that her stabbing her husband to death was excessive and may not be seen as legitimate self-defense.
The husband had carried out a violent attack on her, punching her in the face, holding her underwater in the bathtub and strangling her. The wife picked up a knife from the kitchen sink and urged him to stay away.
He attacked her again, upon which she stabbed her husband.
The husband was immediately taken to the hospital but died the following day.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Husband tries to kill wife, wife kills husband, kids lose life insurance benefits.
Here's a hell of a story, from a Korea Herald article about children who can't receive life insurance payouts after their mother killed their father:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
As I said in reply to Mark's comment two posts back, I posted this around 2:00 pm then changed my mind, and pulled it a little while later. It didn't show up in the feeds until just now. I decided to put it back up, just to be consistent. That's one thing I don't like about rss feeds . . . you can't delete stuff from them.
This is just disgusting. Insert heavy sigh here.....
If we assume that the courts ruled correctly that her actions were excessive for self-defense, then the court's determination of eligibility for insurance proceeds actually makes sense. I say "assume" because from the facts they mention and my absolute lack of faith in Korean judges, I cannot expect that it was in fact the correct decision to say her actions were "excessive."
Anyway, assuming she *was* excessive: obviously, it makes sense to deny proceeds to a beneficiary who willfully causes the death of the insured. And by transferring her rights to the children, you first have to look at what rights she had when she transferred them to the kids. Assuming she did so after the incident, she actually had nothing to transfer to the kids since she herself was disqualified from collecting. If she had no right t collect, she couldn't transfer that right.
Sad, and indicative of a screwed up legal policy on self-defense, but from an insurance perspective, it makes sense.
(I'm also assuming they split the proceedings into a criminal trial in which they determined the validity of her self defense claim, and then a civil proceeding to determine whether the insurer was obligated to pay.)
Anyone here shocked or surprised? Didn't think so.
This is hardly a problem exclusive to Korea. In Finland self-defense is de facto illegal. Any use of force is likely to land you in legal trouble. Presumably lawmakers and judges live in the clouds and don't know anything about the realities of fighting.
She married a Korean man, she knew to what she was entitled.
Forget the life insurance benefits, this woman just went on the best diet ever and lost an 80kg sack of shit. That's all that matters.
She first made it clear that she would defend herself using the knife. It was necessary to defend herself. As a result he died.
Another example of educated people lacking common sense..
She should not have gone to jail.
Apparently, the children were not listed as secondary beneficiaries either, if Korean insurance law even has that kind option.
When I got my life insurance policy, the agent made me put both a primary and secondary beneficiary, just in case.
Bunch of savages.
--------------------------
She married a Korean man, she knew to what she was entitled.
---------------------------
Let's see ... we have a post Monday where (some) English teachers get bent out of shape over negative comments directed at a whole group (English teachers).
And just a day later we get a post where (some) English teachers get bent out of shape and START MAKING negative comments directed at a whole group (Koreans).
The internet is an amazing place.
Yes, knock that off guys.
Post a Comment