Woman granted divorce after husband ignores her texts - for 6 months

It is of popular opinion that people who leave their read receipts on are also the same people who flirt with danger, are borderline psychopaths, or just really have their life together, and can reply to every text they receive.

For those who are not familiar with what read receipts are, it is basically a fancy phrase for what is widely known as "blue ticks".

Already, we are all too familiar with stories of how read receipts being left unanswered have led to messy quarrels, and in some cases, breakups. However, have you ever heard of unanswered messages being used as the basis of a divorce?

A lady in Taiwan has just been granted a divorce by Hsinchu district's family affairs court, with the evidence of her husband's read receipts as grounds for the motion.

According to BBC, the lady, surnamed Lin, had been texting her husband via Line, a popular messaging service which also allows senders to see whether recipients have opened their messages. Despite opening all of Lin's messages, her husband failed to reply any of them - for six months.

In one instance, the Taiwanese lady was admitted into an emergency room at a hospital after having been involved in a car accident, and texted her husband to tell him what had happened. Incredibly, the message was ignored. He did visit her at the hospital a few days later, but the damage was done.

"A normal couple shouldn't treat each other like that… The Line messages were a very important piece of evidence" Judge Kao, the judge assigned to the case said.

"It shows the overall state of the marriage… that the two parties don't have good communication."

The couple had been married since 2012, with Lin in her 50s and her husband in his 40s. Furthermore, it has also been reported that Lin has not been treated well, with her husband's family restricting how long she is allowed to shower, as well as setting a maximum temperature she is allowed to turn the water heater up to.

The unanswered messages were simply the last straw for Lin.

"Now internet communication is very common, so these can be used as evidence. In the past, we needed written hardcopy evidence," Judge Kao said.

Lin's husband is allowed to file an appeal against the divorce, and may actually have a fighting chance to overturn the decision. That is, if he bothers to show up for any of the court hearings. Needless to say, he has not.

 nicchew@sph.com.sg