Cheongchul Law Firm (Contact Attorneys: Park Jong-han, Lee Young-gyeong) recently won a lawsuit in which the opposing party claimed that the property owned by the client was entrusted in name and filed a lawsuit for a change of ownership registration based on the recovery of true ownership, rejecting all claims from the opposing party.
The opposing party in this case argued that the substance of the land transaction between the client and the opposing party was not a property sale but rather a name trust. The opposing party claimed that he had entrusted the name of the land to the client, but that this name trust was invalid under the Act on the Registration of Real Estate Real Owners (Real Name Act), and filed a lawsuit for a change of ownership registration based on the recovery of true ownership against the client.
Cheongchul Law Firm stated in relation to this,
that the client had paid the full purchase price for this land from the plaintiff in the process of acquiring the land through debt assumption,
the client not only holds the registration certificate in accordance with the sales contract as a legitimate buyer of this land but also directly paid the acquisition tax,
it was emphasized that a loan agreement was drawn up to finance the sales price of this land between the client and the plaintiff, clearly indicating that there was an agreement on debt assumption between the two parties, which aligns with the interests of the plaintiff and proves that the transaction of this land was conducted based on the sales contract. The court accepted Cheongchul's opinion as it was.
The court issued a ruling that rejected all claims from the plaintiff.
Determining whether the substance of the land transaction is a genuine land transaction or a name trust involves a comprehensive assessment of various relevant factors, such as various dispositional documents, the holders of registration rights, the party responsible for paying acquisition taxes, and whether benefits corresponding to the transaction amount were paid. Therefore, meticulous examination of the facts and well-founded arguments are essential. In particular, in this case, the opposing party’s legal representative is one of the top 10 law firms in Korea, making it significant that Cheongchul has won against a large law firm once again.
Cheongchul Law Firm promises to continue to do its best for the benefit of the clients.
