The Taiwan High Court has found a matchmaking agency responsible for ruining the marriage of its clients and ordered that it must pay the former groom, surnamed Chen (陳), NT$500,000 in handling and reneging fees.
Chen in April 2016 signed a contract with the agency and paid NT$380,000 for it to arrange a marriage with a foreign spouse and her immigration to Taiwan.
The agency contacted an Indonesian agent, known only as A-chin (阿進), who arranged for Chen and the former bride, a woman surnamed Huang (黃), to meet, marry and register their marriage in Indonesia.
Chen returned to Taiwan to prepare for Huang’s arrival, but was later informed that A-chin had not started preparing Huang’s departure due to financial disagreements between A-chin and the agency, the court said.
Chen did his best to facilitate a deal, as A-chin refused to hand over the marriage certificate before the disagreements were resolved, it said.
A-chin relented and mailed the certificate to Chen, but Huang had already said that she “was not going through with the marriage” due to the long time the negotiations had taken, the court said.
According to Article 982 of the Civil Code, as Chen and Huang had not registered their marriage at a Taiwanese household registration office, the court could not recognize the marriage as legal, it said.
Chen took the agency to court as he considered it wholly at fault, demanding that it not only return his advance payment of NT$380,000, but should pay double the amount for not honoring the contract.
However, the agency said that it had fulfilled the contract, as it oversaw the introduction and marriage of Chen and Huang, and had helped them obtain an Indonesian marriage certificate.
“We are not at fault, as we could not guarantee that Huang would be willing to come to Taiwan,” the agency was quoted by the court as saying.
The court ruled that Chen’s marriage went sour primarily due to financial disputes between the agency and A-chin.
However, it ruled that Chen’s demand for the firm to pay double the advance payment in compensation for breach of contract was too excessive.
The agency should return the advance payment and pay an additional NT$115,000 in compensation for a total of NT$500,000, the court said in the ruling, which was final.
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