2025년 채권법 중요판례평석

The rulings on the Law of Obligations rendered throughout 2025 provided a wealth of legal issues, both in terms of quantity and quality. While this review highlights seven selected major rulings, numerous other decisions have also contributed to expanding the horizons of the Law of Obligations. Overall, the 2025 rulings reflect a concerted effort to maintain the Supreme Court’s existing stance while refining legal principles with greater precision, seeking harmony with precedents to achieve concrete validity. Admittedly, in certain individual cases, there remains some regret regarding legal completeness, or issues left as tasks for future resolution. Specifically, these rulings address the following key issues: (1) who bears the burden of expenses when a partnership member acquires ownership of real estate—which is the object of the partnership business—through a "contract title trust where the seller is acting in good faith"; (2) whether a victim of voice phishing bears liability for a non-face-to-face loan taken out using their stolen identity; (3) whether the amount to be deducted from the value of the joint security, in cases where the transfer of a share in a Jeonse object constitutes a fraudulent act, is the full Jeonse deposit or an amount proportional to the share; (4) under what circumstances the validity of an agreement to deduct from the security deposit is limited; (5) the legislative intent behind recognizing the retroactive effect of set-off; (6) whether a recipient bears an obligation to return unjust enrichment when a remitter transfers funds to the principal’s account after being deceived by a third party impersonating an unauthorized agent; and (7) whether the doctrine of performance for illegal cause (in pari delicto) applies to property division upon divorce.