A woman has lodged an appeal with Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court seeking more than 1 million yuan (US$146,075) from the boyfriend who left her after 16 years of living together.

The Putuo District People's Court rejected Cai Guoying's claim earlier this month.

Cai, 55, met Su Feihu, 47, when her ex-husband was jailed in 1989. Su and Cai began to live together in 1990 and when her ex-husband was released in 1996, she got divorced and stayed with Su.

But they never registered to get married. As time went by, Cai thought a marriage certificate less important as Su treated her and her family well. Her relatives all thought they were married, she said.

But at the end of 2005, Su admitted he had a lover and left home to marry her. Su entrusted a friend to write an IOU in June 2006, agreeing to pay Cai 1.2 million yuan in compensation. But after paying 135,000 yuan, he refused to pay more.

The Putuo court hearing determined that Cai's situation wasn't covered by law and the promise of compensation couldn't be enforced.

(Shanghai Daily December 17, 2008)