A district court has ruled that a local woman must repay her ex-boyfriend 60,000 yuan ($9,424) of the money he spent on her during their three-year relationship, along with a furniture set he bought for her apartment, Putuo District People's Court announced Tuesday.
The ex-boyfriend, a man surnamed Li, sued his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Chen, for 260,000 yuan after the couple broke up in 2011 due to personal differences, according to a press release from the court.
In the lawsuit, Li said he spent over 260,000 yuan on home appliances for Chen's apartment and payments on her 1.1 million yuan mortgage, plus a 40,000 yuan furniture set. After the breakup, Li asked Chen to return the money, but she refused.
Li provided the court with evidence that he bought the furniture set and had transferred 60,000 yuan to Chen's account, according to the news release. However, the court couldn't confirm that Li had given Chen additional funds.
In court, Chen said that Li gave her the 60,000 yuan to cover their daily living expenses and it wasn't used to pay down the mortgage on her home in Putuo district. She denied that he had ever given her cash.
The court ruled that couples share financial resources for the purpose of getting married, so if the relationship ends, large sums of money and expensive gifts should be returned.