The marriage between the adolescent heir Lai (賴) and a guy with the last name Hsia (夏) was declared legally void by a Taiwanese court on Sunday, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.9 million) fortune.
After the court rendered its decision in June, the Taichung District Court announced that Hsia decided not to appeal the civil judgment, rendering it final.
The court stated in its June decision that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, had “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their correspondence was “distant and unfamiliar.”
The judge came to the conclusion that the marriage did not satisfy the necessary conditions for legality and that the couple did not have the “true intention of establishing a permanent union”
Two hours after the marriage was registered, Lai died on May 4, 2023, after falling from the balcony of Hsia’s tenth-floor flat. Since Lai’s body showed no symptoms of trauma, poisoning, or alcohol consumption, the Taichung District Prosecutors Office was unable to find enough evidence to charge Hsia with murder.
In June 2024, Hsia was instead found guilty of faking marriage registration documents and given an 18-month prison sentence. Due to his exemplary behavior, he was sent to a minimum-security facility last month to finish his sentence, which he started serving in February 2025.
The civil petition was brought by Lai’s mother to formally dissolve the marriage, which has now been validated by the law.