Goo Ho In’s lawyer has released a statement regarding his mother’s claim to half of his sister Goo Hara’s inheritance.

It was previously reported that Goo Ho In filed a lawsuit against his mother after she claimed 50 percent of Goo Hara’s inheritance as the late singer’s direct ancestor, despite being absent for most of their lives.

On March 12, a legal representative of Goo Ho In released a statement about this matter.

The full statement is below:

Hello. This is lawyer Noh Jong Eon from law firm S who is in charge of the inheritance division appeal for Goo Hara’s brother. There are many questions regarding this lawsuit, so I’m releasing a statement as the legal representative of Goo Hara’s brother.

Goo Hara’s mother, Ms. Song, left the home when Goo Hara was nine years old and couldn’t be reached for almost 20 years. During that time, Goo Hara’s brother and other relatives filled in the mother’s vacancy and Hara’s debut was possible because of the family’s devoted care.

Goo Hara frequently expressed anger, sadness, and a feeling of emptiness about her mother who abandoned her. It would be hard to deny that Goo Hara’s unfortunate death last fall was influenced by mental anguish due to the trauma of being abandoned by her mother.

Goo Hara’s father, who knows this situation better than anyone else, blamed himself for it reaching this extent and gave his entire share of the inheritance to Goo Hara’s brother. After Goo Hara’s funeral procession in November, Hara’s brother tried to call his mother to resolve the issues regarding the sale of Hara’s home, but she could not be reached.

While Goo Hara’s brother was resolving balance and registration issues, lawyers of his mother whom he had never seen before suddenly appeared and requested half of the money from the sale of Goo Hara’s home. Goo Hara’s brother was so shocked that his mother, who had played no role while Goo Hara was alive, was making such an unreasonable demand, and he filed a lawsuit against his mother for an inheritance division trial.

Under the current law, there is a contributory portion system and inheritance ineligibility system under civil law that prevents the birth mother from claiming inheritance. However, in terms of the contributory portion system under civil law (a system that adds contributory portion in the calculation of shares of inheritance when a co-inheritor has particularly taken care of the deceased for a considerable amount of time through cohabitation, nursing, or other methods or has particularly contributed to the maintenance or increase of the deceased’s property) the court is restricted in its acknowledgement of it because of the extreme requirements. In terms of the inheritance ineligibility system too, the accepted reasons are very limited to things such as the murder of a family member or the falsification of a will. Therefore, there are questions about whether even a case where a parent has abandoned their child for a long period of time fits within these reasons for disqualification.

Parents abandoning their children and then suddenly appearing to claim their inheritance is not a recent problem. During the Cheonan tragedy and Sewol Ferry tragedy, parents who abandoned their children suddenly appeared and demanded compensation for the children’s deaths which made the bereaved families go through indescribable suffering.

Therefore, it’s an urgent situation where the inheritance law should be revised to protect these people and where no inheritance should be given to parents who abandoned their children. As such, we are looking at various ways such as a petition for legislation to resolve Goo Hara and brother’s situation in the right direction and to prevent the recurrence of tragedies like that of Goo Hara’s family. We ask for your interest and support so that we can prevent this tragedy from repeating in our society and we can improve our society.

We would like to urge Goo Hara’s mother once again to look at this from the perspective of humanity and universal justice before the law. It is better for Goo Hara’s mother to express her deepest condolences for Goo Hara instead of claiming her inheritance. In 2008, there was an instance where the late Jo Sung Min also gave up his rights to the late Choi Jin Sil’s inheritance.

Finally, we sincerely hope that Goo Hara, who was loved by many people, will be happy and won’t be sad in her next life.

Thank you.

From lawyer Noh Jong Eon of law firm S on March 12, 2020.