A wrangle over a home between a wealthy Richmond resident and her Chinese national ex-husband, who she met on a dating site, has come out in a Court of Appeal hearing.
Shuang Xie, a Richmond resident and Canadian citizen, and Jun Yuan, a Chinese national, divorced in May 2011, less than two years into their marriage in Zhuhai, China and only three years after the pair met on a dating site.
According to a recent judgement at the BC Court of Appeal, when the couple officially divorced, they agreed to divide their assets, which included Yuan becoming the sole owner of a property bought in 2010 in Richmond for $1.53 million.
However, despite agreeing to the split of assets at the time of the divorce, Yuan’s wife filed a law suit, claiming the division of assets was unfair, even though her ex-husband was the registered owner of the property.
The matter went to trial in 2017, after which a judge ruled the original divorce agreement was to stand.
Xie, referred to in court documents as a “sophisticated businesswoman,” then launched another appeal last year, claiming the trial judge had made several errors in her judgment.
Notes from the trial indicate that Xie claimed to have paid the $50,000 deposit on the Richmond property and had also transferred just over $488,000 to her ex-husband.
The remainder of the purchase price was funded by a mortgage in Yuan’s name for $1,071,000.
“It was not clear if that money came from the claimant’s account or from her parent’s account,” wrote the trial judge in 2018.
“Her evidence was unclear on this point. She produced bank statements showing transfers of the appropriate amounts from her bank account to the respondent’s bank account, but she also testified that she was responsible for investing her parents’ money and that was the true source of those funds.
“To be clear, to the extent the claimant wants me to find that she paid for the house solely from her own funds, I am not satisfied on a balance of probabilities that is true. I find instead, that some combination of her and her family’s money purchased the Richmond property.”
The judge also added at the time that she was willing to counteract the brevity of the marriage, given that Yuan paid his ex-wife back some of the purchase price on properties in China they owned and some of the Richmond property.
“I find she signed (the divorce agreement) voluntarily, fully aware of its consequences, including that it assigned to the respondent ownership of the Richmond property.”
In dismissing Xie’s appeal, Mr. Justice Hunter said the “circumstances at the time of distribution (of their assets) were not shown to be different from those contemplated at the time of the agreement.
“The judge made no palpable and overriding errors of fact in considering the parties’ contributions to the acquisition of assets, nor did she err in the application of the relevant principles in a manner that warranted appellate intervention.”
