One day, you find yourself as the plaintiff in a case without even knowing it. Then you discover that the house under your name is gone!
This is exactly what happened in Yingjiang County, Fuyang City, Anhui Province.
"How could I become a plaintiff without even knowing it?" said Luo Huilai, a farmer in his 50s, with a flushed face. His house was transferred to someone else through a lawsuit "he supposedly initiated."
Luo Huilai runs an individual business selling large circles (a rural container for storing grain) made from reeds to Northeast China. In late 2005, he lost money and couldn't repay the 700,000 yuan loan from the local credit union. At this time, Wang Gan, an employee of the Yingshang County Office of the Banking Regulatory Commission, paid this amount to the credit union on his behalf.
"Wang Gan wanted to buy two shops I had in Shanghai, but I never agreed. I only said that if we agree, I can give you one," said Luo Huilai.
Before the deal was finalized, they signed an agreement: "Party B Luo Huilai voluntarily sells two storefronts at a certain location in Shanghai to Party A Wang Gan for 862,224.6 yuan. Party A will prepay 742,224.6 yuan by December 30, 2005, and the remaining 120,000 yuan will be paid by March 10, 2006. Party B must provide the property certificate of the aforementioned house to Party A."
According to Luo Huilai's recollection: "At that time, Wang Gan paid off my debt to the credit union, fearing that I would run away. We agreed to hand over my property certificate to the court for temporary safekeeping. The handling judge was Zheng Zhangyou."
But he never expected that the house would be transferred to Wang Gan without his signature.
In late July 2006, Luo Huilai, Zheng Zhangyou, and Wang Gan went together to the Hongkou District Real Estate Bureau in Shanghai.
According to Luo Huilai: "When they asked me to go, I went. They were talking while I waited on the side. I didn't say anything because I didn't know what was going on. I didn't see any transfer documents because they went upstairs to handle the matter and asked me to copy materials downstairs. I saw a court mediation statement with my name on it. I was puzzled, so I secretly put the original in my pocket. I didn't dare to look at it until I got home." On August 10 of the same year, the house owner was changed to Wang Gan.
A reporter from China Youth Daily questioned: "If you didn't plan to sell, according to common sense, you should have hurried to repay the money. How could you sign a purchase agreement?"
"I certainly wanted to repay the money, but the time was too short. The agreement was signed in March, and before I could raise the money, the house became his in August!" Luo Huilai replied.
In 2007, Luo Huilai still frequently visited the letters and visits office of the Yingshang County Court, "at that time, I was determined to get back my house."
The staff of the letters and visits office retrieved a "Civil Mediation Statement": "Look, this is something you agreed to yourself, now there's no use regretting it."
The date on this civil mediation statement was shortly before the house transfer that year. The "plaintiff" column listed none other than Luo Huilai himself, who was completely baffled.
Judge directed a case with "six fakes"?
Luo Huilai said that this case involved "six fakes."
"The first fake was when they helped me hire a lawyer and forged a power of attorney; the second fake was helping me file a false lawsuit; the third fake was helping me file a false case; the fourth fake was helping me conduct a false trial; the fifth fake was helping me create a false mediation statement; the sixth fake was the judge going to the real estate bureau for false enforcement," Luo Huilai said.
Materials seen by the reporter from China Youth Daily showed that on July 21, 2006, Luo Huilai filed a lawsuit against Wang Gan at the Yingshang County Court for owing him 100,000 yuan in house payments.
There was no signature or fingerprint of Luo Huilai on the complaint. The agent was legal worker Zhang Xueyi.
Strangely, in the interrogation record of the Yingshang County People's Procuratorate in July 2008, Zhang Xueyi admitted that he didn't even know Luo Huilai at the time.
Zhang Xueyi said: "I only met Luo Huilai when he came to inquire about the agency case around May 2008." This time was already two years after the "entrustment."
So, where did these lawsuits, entrustments, and documents come from?
According to Zhang Xueyi's recollection: "The civil complaint, Luo Huilai's ID card copy, a house sale agreement, and an authorization letter with Luo Huilai's signature and blank date items were all handed over to me by Judge Zheng Zhangyou. Zheng also gave me money and asked me to file the case at the filing chamber."
"After I filed the case, I gave the invoice to Judge Zheng, and Zheng asked me to hand over the power of attorney to Judge Wang Ruixiang. All of this was arranged by Zheng Zhangyou," Zhang Xueyi said.
He also confirmed that on the receipt of service delivered by the court, it wasn't the complainant Luo Huilai who signed, but rather Wang Ruixiang who asked him to sign.
The prosecution once asked: "Do you know whether the claims in the complaint are Luo Huilai's true intentions?"
"I don't know, this was arranged by Zheng Zhangyou," Zhang answered.
"Is it correct for the parties not to be present to authorize the entrustment and not to be present to participate in the mediation?" the reporter asked.
"This practice is incorrect. Since Zheng Zhangyou is a court staff member and we have a good relationship, I violated the rules and handled it," Zhang Xueyi said.
In Wang Ruixiang's investigation and questioning record, Wang stated that Zheng Zhangyou said there was a case, "asking me to handle it. If there were any problems, he could do some work in between."
Two judges involved
So, is the blank power of attorney signed by Luo Huilai real or fake? "It's mine," Luo Huilai recalled, "when I went to the court once, Judge Zheng asked me to sign a piece of paper in his office without telling me what it was for. I just signed it at the table."
And in Zheng Zhangyou's interrogation record with the Yingshang County People's Procuratorate, he said that Luo Huilai was once his middle school student, so he helped him litigate.
"If I asked him for help, why didn't he let me sign the complaint? Why didn't he notify me personally to participate in the mediation?" Luo Huilai questioned, "especially, why didn't he give me the civil mediation statement issued by the People's Court?"
During the early investigation, the procuratorate asked Zheng Zhangyou: "Wang Gan handed over 120,000 yuan to you and was willing to bear the cost of transferring ownership. They could directly take the agreement to the real estate department for transfer, then you could give the remaining amount to Luo Huilai. Why would there still be a case where Luo would sue Wang Gan?"
Zheng Zhangyou replied: "Luo Huilai would want the remaining money. Even if he owed him 1000 yuan, he would sue." He explicitly denied receiving any benefits from the parties involved.
From the filing on July 21, 2006, to the court's announcement on July 27, 2006, the entire case took only six days. During this period, Luo Huilai was never present.
In Zheng Zhangyou's acceptance of the investigation by the procuratorial authorities, he said that after the civil mediation, Luo Huilai actively invited him to assist in transferring ownership in Shanghai.
Strangely, related evidence files showed that the transfer in Shanghai in August 2006 was "forced execution" by the court, without the signature of the house owner Luo Huilai.
At this moment, another judge from the Yingshang County Court, Li Shiran, appeared. He rented a car from Yingshang County and showed his work certificate and official duty certificate to the staff of the Hongkou District Real Estate Bureau.
After verification by China Youth Daily, the civil mediation was handled by the Second Civil Division of the Yingshang County Court, whereas Li Shiran was a judge from the First Civil Division. How did he get involved in a case that wasn't under his jurisdiction?
The truth is, his appearance was due to a phone call from Zheng Zhangyou.
Li Shiran recalled: "At that time, I was sick at home. Zheng Zhangyou called me from Shanghai, saying that this case required a transfer of ownership, and needed court staff to show their certificates. He himself did not have an official duty certificate. Additionally, the case must be completed by the next day, otherwise several ten thousand yuan in transfer fees would need to be paid. For the sake of the parties involved, please endure the hardship and rent a car to go."
How could a civil mediation require "forced execution"?
Two years later, Li Shiran confessed to the procuratorate that assisting in the transfer of ownership was "without going through the execution process."
In the archived "Situation Explanation" by the procuratorate, Judge Li specifically explained: "After arriving in Shanghai, I reviewed the legal documents. I believed that the effective legal document clearly stated that both parties could transfer ownership based on this document, and after reviewing, it was determined that no execution procedure was necessary. But showing the certificate was not illegal, the purpose was to prove that transferring ownership based on the mediation document required the presence of court personnel."
Intermediate Court Recognizes "Being the Plaintiff" Case
In March 2008, the Anti-Dereliction of Duty and Abuse of Power Bureau of the Yingshang County People's Procuratorate began investigating this matter.
Six months later, the procuratorate determined that "the actions of Zheng Zhangyou, Wang Ruixiang, Wang Gan, and Zhang Xueyi did not constitute a crime," therefore no case was filed. Judges suspected of dereliction of duty and other relevant responsible persons have not been held accountable to this day.
And for these four years, Luo Huilai's house has never returned to his possession.
He has been appealing, requesting the court to revoke the original civil mediation statement and return the two storefronts in the Hongkou District of Shanghai. His representative lawyer believed: "Luo did not entrust legal worker Zhang Xueyi, and no legitimate and effective legal relationship was established between them. Zhang's actions cannot represent Luo's true intentions, and Luo should not bear the legal consequences of the mediation statement."
In October 2009, the Yingshang County People's Court determined that "the original mediation violated the principle of voluntariness" and revoked the controversial civil mediation statement.
But the defendant Wang Gan was dissatisfied and appealed to the Intermediate People's Court of Fuyang City. He insisted that the original civil mediation statement was "legally valid."
During several trials, Wang Gan presented evidence in the form of two receipts written by Luo Huilai. They respectively stated receiving 100,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan, "my transaction with Wang Gan regarding the house sale is settled." The date was the day of the house transfer—August 10, 2006.
China Youth Daily asked Luo Huilai: "Why did you accept the money and write the receipt? Did you voluntarily sell the house?"
He replied: "No, this was done at a hotel in Shanghai that day by Zheng Zhangyou and Wang Gan. After leaving the real estate bureau, they transferred the money to me and then asked me to write the receipt. I said I didn't know how to write it, and he said 'I'll tell you, you write.' At that time, I had to write it, as a common person, I was afraid."
On February 8 this year, the Fuyang Intermediate Court ruled that Luo Huilai's claim that he never filed the lawsuit and that the case was fabricated was unfounded.
The court considered: "Although there was no signature or fingerprint of Luo Huilai on the original appeal, there were copies of Luo Huilai's ID card, property certificate, and the original house sale agreement in the mediation file, along with his signature on the power of attorney, all proving that he entrusted Zheng Zhangyou to file the lawsuit."
But Luo Huilai insisted that these documents were not provided by him: "In 2005, when I had disputes with the credit union, the handling judge was Zheng Zhangyou. It was very easy for him to obtain copies of my ID card and property certificate from the file."
At the same time, the court believed that although Zhang Xueyi did not obtain authorization from the party concerned, "the two receipts issued by Luo Huilai to Wang Gan according to the content of the mediation statement could corroborate his acknowledgment of the mediation content."
Therefore, the court again ruled that "the original civil mediation did not violate the principle of voluntariness and should be upheld."
On May 18, 2009, Luo Huilai submitted a retrial application to the Anhui Provincial Higher People's Court, which has been accepted.
"We commissioned an appraisal agency, estimating that my two stores are now worth more than 3 million yuan, with annual rent nearing 100,000 yuan. Now, I have nothing," he said, furrowing his brows, smoking one cigarette after another.
As of press time, the reporter has continuously attempted to contact the Yingshang County Court and related judges involved, but all attempts have been unsuccessful.
This newspaper will continue to follow the progress of this matter.