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Seoul, Feb 1 (IANS) Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee has won an inheritance lawsuit against his siblings, keeping his control over South Korea's largest conglomerate, Xinhua reported. The Seoul Central District Court Friday said some stocks demanded by Lee's siblings were actually inherited by them but that the 10-year period for inheritance claims had expired. The court rejected the claims over other stocks, saying that the remaining stocks could not be viewed as their inheritance. Maeng-hee, the eldest brother of Lee and former Cheil Fertilizer chairman, filed an inheritance retrieval lawsuit with the court in February 2012. He claimed that his younger brother monopolised stocks in Samsung Life Insurance inherited from Lee Byung-chull, the Samsung Group founder who died in 1987, Xinhua said. The eldest son called for his younger brother to return 8.24 million shares in the life insurer, the ownership of which was changed from a third party name to his brother in 2008. Sook-hee, the elder sister of Lee, sued him on similar grounds. She asked the court to order him to return 2.23 million shares in Samsung Life Insurance. Samsung Life Insurance is a key in the cross-share ownership structure in the Samsung Group. Lee has governed all the affiliates of the Samsung Group in a way that he and Samsung Everland, the group's de facto holding company, controls Samsung Life Insurance which controls the group's finance-related affiliates as well as Samsung Electronics that controls tech-related affiliates.
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