Foreigners in Thai Courts: Supreme Court Decisions

Reviewed by Wichuda Atthamethakon, LL.M., Thai Bar Licence 3149/2556, for ThaiLawOnline, a Thai law firm acting for foreigners since 2006.

Last updated on 7 November 2026

These are the Thai Supreme Court decisions in our library where a foreigner was a party, or where being a foreigner decided the outcome. Each entry links to a page with the facts, the holding, the court’s own words in Thai and the full Thai judgment, taken from the Supreme Court’s published record.

Read them as what the court actually decided on those facts. A decision binds the parties to it; lower courts follow the Supreme Court’s reasoning in practice, but the next case turns on its own facts and evidence. For the full collection, see Thai Supreme Court decisions in English.

Marriage, divorce and children

• Decision 3740/2525: A registrar cannot refuse a marriage because the foreign partner lacks immigration papers. A foreign partner's immigration paperwork is not itself a condition of marriage that allows a registrar to refuse.
• Decision 580/2527: Only the statutory conditions of marriage allow a registrar to refuse registration. It follows 3740/2525 and fixes the conditions of marriage as an exhaustive statutory list.
• Decision 4152/2532: A registrar waiting for an embassy certificate of single status has not refused. The district office is entitled to evidence from a foreigner's embassy that he or she is free to marry.
• Decision 218/2562: A foreign couple's marriage abroad can be void in Thailand if one spouse was still married. A foreign couple's marriage abroad can be held void in a Thai court, with the Thai property consequences of a void marriage.
• Decision 1179/2561: Land bought with a foreigner's money in a void marriage must be disposed of under the Land Code. A marriage registered abroad and never dissolved bars a later Thai registration.
• Decision 5887/2533: A divorce by consent between foreigners is valid if both national laws allow it. The leading authority for foreign or mixed couples married abroad who agree to divorce in Thailand.
• Decision 1869/2566: No Thai Divorce From a Foreign Spouse Unless Their National Law Is Proved to Allow Divorce.
• Decision 8455/2559: Marital property cannot be divided while the marriage subsists. A spouse cannot obtain division of marital property while the marriage subsists, and a foreign divorce obtained behind the other spouse's back may not be recognised.
• Decision 6499/2557: Spousal maintenance lasts until the marriage ends, not until the wife remarries. Foreign spouses can litigate divorce and maintenance in Thailand, and spousal maintenance during marriage is tied to the marriage itself.
• Decision 8151/2560: At-Fault Spouse Cannot Claim Alimony but May Get Maintenance Until the Divorce Is Final.
• Decision 13964/2558: A foreign husband's pre-marriage money stays his in land, but buildings are shared. Shows a foreign spouse can trace pre-marriage money into land, but buildings added during the marriage become shared.
• Decision 14040/2557: Property bought in the Thai spouse's name during marriage is still marital property. Registration in the Thai spouse's name does not stop property bought during the marriage from being marital, and a foreign spouse's share of land is realised by a forced sale.
• Decision 1523/2565: Unmarried Partner Takes Half by Co-ownership, and the Loan Was a Sham.
• Decision 6981/2547: A father of a child born outside marriage has no parental power without legitimation. A settlement in which the mother acknowledges paternity does not, by itself, make the father a legal parent.
• Decision 7074/2558: A father must support and educate children born by assisted reproduction until majority. A foreign father cannot escape support by invoking his home law, but a Thai court will not order school fees beyond majority without an agreement.
• Decision 2668/2556: A Thai court may give one parent sole parental power after a foreign divorce silent on custody. Foreign couples living in Thailand can obtain a Thai order on parental power even when their foreign divorce decree said nothing about the child.

Land, condominiums and nominees

• Decision 599/2500: Oral side arrangements around a registered land sale to a foreigner bind no one. Oral side arrangements around a registered land sale to a foreigner bind no one.
• Decision 2690/2538: Nominee Land for a Foreigner: Not Wholly Void, but a Good-Faith Buyer Takes Priority.
• Decision 17923/2557: Lease That Was Really a Sale: Foreign Buyers Cannot Compel Transfer to a Nominee Company.
• Decision 5016/2555: An alien's possession of land is not void, but the court would not declare his estate owner. Possession by a foreigner can count, but a court will not hand land to a foreigner through section 1382.
• Decision 7500/2552: A foreigner cannot use adverse possession to avoid condominium ownership conditions. Foreigners cannot acquire a condominium unit by possession to bypass the foreign ownership rules.
• Decision 8637/2550: Adverse possession cannot apply to land the claimant was already entitled to hold. A beneficiary of a nominee holding cannot use adverse possession to recover the land from the nominee; another remedy is needed.
• Decision 5570/2533: Unregistered adverse possession cannot defeat a good faith mortgagee who registered. Family members who rely on a nominee's name on the title, and even on long possession, lose to a lender who registers in good faith.
• Decision 2811/2565: A claimed nominee cannot also claim adverse possession of the same condominium unit. A claimant cannot plead nominee ownership and adverse possession in the alternative without pleading it properly; the registered owner is presumed to own.
• Decision 3857/2565: A foreigner who paid for land in a Thai partner's name has standing to sue. A foreigner who paid for land held in a Thai partner's name can sue to protect it, but the court will order the land sold.
• Decision 840/2561: A foreign company's condominium purchase outside the statutory categories is void. A foreign company buying a condominium must fit one of the statutory categories, otherwise the purchase and even an arbitral refund award may be unenforceable.
• Decision 5457/2560: Sham Loan Hiding a Business Bought Through Thai Nominee Shareholders: Void, and the Money Irrecoverable.
• Decision 1180/2563: Land bought unlawfully by a foreigner in a son's name stays in the estate. It shows what happens to Thai land a foreigner holds through a nominee: it is estate property, but the heirs inherit the obligation to sell it, not the land itself.

Inheritance and estates

• Decision 72/2542: Siblings do not inherit when the deceased left a descendant, so a widow may administer alone. A foreign-born spouse is a statutory heir like any other, and siblings drop out entirely when there are children.
• Decision 9189/2547: An unregistered partner can be appointed co-administrator of the estate. An unregistered partner, Thai or foreign, can ask to be appointed administrator because of her or his own share in jointly acquired property.
• Decision 1357/2534: An heir applying to be administrator must prove he is fit for the role. Fitness is part of the application: the court can refuse an heir whose conduct makes him unsuitable.
• Decision 8222/2540: A holographic will must carry a date and an undated will is void. It shows the date is an essential element and that the original document must be produced.

Foreign companies, agents and suing in Thailand

• Decision 2359/2561: A power of attorney to sign company documents does not authorise suing. Foreign companies litigating in Thailand must expressly authorise their representative to bring proceedings.
• Decision 2288/2536: A general power of attorney lets an agent assign a claim under section 801. Only the six listed acts need specific authority; other dispositions may be done under a general power.
• Decision 1274/2501: A sub-agent can sue in Thailand if the authority expressly covers litigation. Foreign rights holders can sue in Thailand through a sub-agent if the chain of authority expressly includes litigation.
• Decision 4580/2542: A foreign carrier can be sued where its local agent in Thailand is based. A foreign company that does business in Thailand through a local agent can be sued in Thailand at the agent's domicile.
• Decision 178/2551: A foreign defendant with no assets in Thailand can have debts owed to it frozen. A foreign defendant with nothing in Thailand can have money owed to it by Thai parties frozen before judgment.
• Decision 2252/2560: Foreign Company Trading Land Loses the Right to Prosecute Its Own Directors.
• Decision 7770/2547: A sub-licence from an unregistered licensee is void and the payment cannot be recovered. A party who ignores a registration requirement it knew about may be unable to recover what it paid.
• Decision 6025/2561: A payment to police to avoid prosecution of workers cannot be deducted from the price. Informal payments to officials to settle immigration or work permit problems cannot be recovered or set off under a contract.

Criminal cases

• Decision 2744/2562: A foreign buyer defrauded by a would-be nominee can be a criminal complainant. Money a foreigner entrusts to a Thai nominee or agent for a purchase is protected by section 352, and the nominee structure does not cost him standing.
• Decision 4096/2557: A caretaker holding keys and paying utilities commits theft, not misappropriation. Whether a nominee or caretaker commits misappropriation or theft depends on whether possession was handed over, and theft is not compoundable.
• Decision 1496/2567: Each separate deception in a visa or nationality scam is a separate fraud count. Visa and nationality scams aimed at foreigners are fraud, and each separate deception is punished separately.
• Decision 18538/2555: A police interpreter's translation of foreign witnesses can support a conviction. Evidence from foreign witnesses through a police interpreter can support an assault conviction.
• Decision 7491/2562: Assaulting foreign workers is punished as separate counts beside trafficking. Assault of foreign workers is punished as separate counts alongside trafficking and detention offences.
• Decision 976/2567: Broadcasting remarks online is defamation by publication even without naming the target. Online programmes are publication, the target need not be named, and the court can order the judgment published online.

How to read these decisions

Each decision page lists the code sections the court applied, and each section page lists the decisions on it, so you can move from a rule to the cases and back. Start from the Civil and Commercial Code, the Penal Code or the Civil Procedure Code.

If your own matter looks like one of these cases, the facts that mattered to the court are the ones to gather first: who paid, whose name is on the title, where and how the marriage was registered, and what was put in writing. You can book a consultation to go through them.

Frequently asked questions