장래의 퇴직급여채권에 대한 재산분할청구에 관한 고찰

Abstract

Until now, the Korean Supreme Court has judged that already acquired retirement benefits must be divided between the divorced couple. However, the Court has also judged that retirement benefits planned to be received after one of the divorcees retires cannot be the object of property division merely due to the chance of receiving it, and has only considered this retirement benefits as a factor in choosing the amount and the means of division. There has been much criticism on these kinds of judgments, and the Supreme Court decided to embrace these opinions and accepted retirement pay that was not yet received as an object of property division. In other words, the Court acknowledged the fact that these unattained retirement pay actually has an economic value. This case can be considered appropriate from three aspects. First, it perfectly suits the purpose of property division which is to liquidate and distribute the wealth that both of the divorcees have made during their marriage according to the degree of their contribution. Secondly, it also corresponds to the meaning of retirement pay, which is supposed to be paid afterwards. Finally, it regards the substantial equality between the divorcees and the equality between men and women. In addition, unattained retirement pay must be divided between the couple only when it satisfies the condition of future performance claims. This is correspondent to the numerous cases accepting the purpose of property division, character of retirement pay, and further execution claims. However, only the retirement pay accumulated until the day of the argument closing must be divided according to the idea of property division.