SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, left, and Roh Soh-yeong, director of Art Center Nabi, enter the Seoul High Court in southern Seoul's Seocho District, April 16, to attend a hearing for the appeals trial of their divorce. Yonhap

Roh Soh-yeong, who is engaged in Korea's largest-ever divorce settlement lawsuit with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, was ordered by the Seoul Central District Court, Friday, to vacate the SK Group building which houses Art Center Nabi art museum, of which she is a director.

The court ruled in the first trial of a lawsuit filed by SK Innovation, an energy unit of SK Group, against Art Center Nabi, ordering the art museum to hand over the 560.3 square meter space it occupies to the SK subsidiary and pay 1.0456 billion won ($753,501) in damages.

SK Innovation filed this lawsuit against Art Center Nabi in April 2023. The art museum has been occupying the fourth floor of SK Seorin Building in central Seoul since December 2000.

Art Center Nabi's lease with SK Innovation already expired in 2019, and the SK Group unit filed the lawsuit because repairs could no longer be postponed as they were renovating the entire building but couldn't touch the area occupied by the museum.

"The defendant is using the space as a museum according to the lease agreement with the plaintiff. Since the plaintiff has legally terminated the contract on the specified date, the defendant is obligated to hand over the property," the court said.

The court said the art museum is obligated to pay damages to SK Innovation for the period after the contract termination, adding that "the court doesn't accept Art Center Nabi's claims that the contract cannot be terminated unilaterally or that it is an abuse of rights or breach of trust.”

Lee Sang-won, an attorney of Pyeong An Lawfirm representing Roh's side, said after the verdict that the lawsuit "feels excessive for a museum that was relocated 25 years ago at the request of Chairman Chey."

"We'll think about whether to appeal, but we don't have a place to go in this heat," Lee added.

Roh, a daughter of late former President Roh Tae-woo, married the SK Group chairman in 1988. They have been going through a divorce lawsuit since 2017, two years after the SK chief confessed in a letter to a local newspaper that he had a child out of wedlock and could no longer maintain his marital relationship with Roh.

On May 30, the Seoul High Court ruled in the appeal trial that Chey should pay Roh 1.38 trillion won, or 35 percent of his assets, in property division, as the court evaluated that the former president's daughter had made significant contributions to the SK Group chief's asset accumulation.

In response, the chairman appealed to the Supreme Court, claiming there were clear errors in the court's calculations.