Reporter Hu Lei editor Xiang Jiaqing
On March 4, 2016, Guo Yongzhu, a businessman in Junlian County, Yibin City, Sichuan Province, had a debt dispute with a local Sichuan Shicheng Real Estate Company, and hired local lawyer Liu Xiaobin to conduct related litigation. On July 29, 2020, Guo Yongzhu demanded compensation of more than 10 million yuan for economic losses on the grounds that Liu Xiaobin had not fulfilled his legal obligations and caused tens of millions of losses to himself, and at the same time complained to the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice. The Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice and the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice successively made administrative decisions to punish Liu Xiaobin and his Sichuan Yuhu Law Firm. Guo Yongzhu disagreed and filed an administrative lawsuit with the Chengdu Qingyang District People's Court.
On September 9, the upstream news reporter learned from the parties that the Qingyang District Court of Chengdu held that the "Reply" made by the defendant Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice to the plaintiff Guo Yongzhu's complaint and the No. 47 Administrative Reconsideration Decision made by the defendant Provincial Department of Justice were legitimate, and rejected the plaintiff Guo Yongzhu's litigation claim.
On September 1, the Qingyang District People's Court of Chengdu City did not support Guo Yongzhu's lawsuit against the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice in the first instance. Image credit/courtesy of the interviewee
1 The lawyer represented the lawyer caused tens of millions of losses, and the party was dissatisfied with the punishment result and filed an administrative lawsuit
According to reports previously published by Upstream News, "Sichuan lawyers who were claimed by the parties for tens of millions of yuan were suspended from practicing for 5 months because they did not issue invoices for private fees" and "Lawyers did not do property preservation and were liable for tens of millions of yuan" and other reports, from March to April 2015, Guo Yongzhu, a businessman in Sichuan Junlian County, lent a total of more than 5.65 million yuan to Sichuan Shicheng Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shicheng Real Estate Company) through private lending, and Shicheng Real Estate Company has not repaid the loan.
On March 4, 2016, Guo Yongzhu hired Liu Xiaobin, a lawyer at Sichuan Yuhu Law Firm, to represent him in a private lending dispute with Shicheng Real Estate Company. On March 7, Liu Xiaobin, on behalf of Guo Yongzhu, produced an "Application for Property Preservation", requesting that the "Dingshui Shengjing Residential Community" built by Shicheng Real Estate Company be located in Junlian Town, Junlian County, on the first floor of Tengchuan Road, no. 3 to 20. Guo Yongzhu has twice transferred to Lawyer Liu Xiaobin's personal account to pay agency fees and litigation fees totaling 150,000 yuan. Guo Yongzhu then found out during the enforcement stage that Liu Xiaobin had not applied to the local court for the preservation of the relevant property, believing that such non-performance of duties had caused tens of millions of property losses to himself.
On July 29, 2020, Guo Yongzhu filed a complaint with his lawyer Liu Xiaobin to the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice. On September 27, the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice issued a "Reply on Guo Yongzhu's Complaint on Lawyer Liu Xiaobin's Suspected Private Charges and Other Issues", and punished lawyer Liu Xiaobin and Sichuan Yuhu Law Firm respectively in accordance with relevant regulations. On November 15 of the same year, Guo Yongzhu sent an "Application for Reconsideration" to the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice, holding that the relevant penalty decision of the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice only punished Liu Xiaobin for privately collecting fees and not issuing tickets, but did not make a real investigation and clear reply to other complaints, and did not respond positively to whether Liu Xiaobin failed to fulfill his agency obligations in accordance with the law, which was "really suspected of shielding and conniving". On December 21, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice made an administrative reconsideration decision, upholding the administrative punishment decision of the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice.
On January 6, 2021, Guo Yongzhu sued the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice and the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice with the Qingyang District People's Court of Chengdu, requesting that the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice's Reply on Guo Yongzhu's Complaint on Lawyer Liu Xiaobin's Suspected Unauthorized Charges and Other Issues and the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice's Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice 's Decision on Administrative Reconsideration (2020) No. 47 be revoked in accordance with the law; and requested that the defendant Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice be ordered to make a new administrative reconsideration decision.
On the afternoon of May 14, the Qingyang District People's Court of Chengdu City held a hearing on the case. The plaintiff, Guo Yongzhu, argued that the lawyer Liu Xiaobin collected the fees privately and did not issue an invoice, and his illegal gains should be confiscated according to relevant laws, but the two defendants, the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice and the Provincial Department of Justice, did not impose administrative penalties for confiscating the illegal gains in accordance with the law, which was an error in the application of law.
2 The court found that the penalty imposed by the Bureau of Justice was lawful and dismissed the claim
On September 1, the Qingyang District People's Court of Chengdu City rendered a first-instance judgment on Guo Yongzhu's lawsuit against the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice and the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice.
The Qingyang District People's Court held that the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice is a judicial administrative organ, and whether the respondent, Liu Xiaobin, is suspected of violating invoice management is not within the scope of its complaint handling. The "Entrustment Agency Contract" signed by the plaintiff Guo Yongzhu and Yuhu Law Firm did not prove that the illegal contract was for seeking illegal benefits, so Guo Yongzhu claimed that the 80,000 yuan lawyer service fee was illegal income, and there was no corresponding factual basis, and the Qingyang District People's Court did not adopt it.
Regarding the most controversial issue of "applying for property preservation", the Qingyang District People's Court held that because the plaintiff Guo Yongzhu had filed a lawsuit with yuhu law firm and the Chengdu branch of Chinese Min Property Insurance Co., Ltd. as the defendant on this issue before filing a complaint against the lawyer Liu Xiaobin, the plaintiff Guo Yongzhu had filed a lawsuit with the Junlian Court as the defendant, and the case was transferred to the Gaoxian People's Court for trial. In view of the above circumstances, in the case that the plaintiff Guo Yongzhu was handed over to the judiciary through litigation channels, it was not improper for the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice to reply to the plaintiff Guo Yongzhu that the matter should be subject to the effective judgment of the people's court.
The Qingyang District People's Court found that the response made by the Yibin Municipal Bureau of Justice to the plaintiff Guo Yongzhu's complaint was not improper, and that the administrative reconsideration decision made by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Justice within the statutory time limit determined the facts, and the applicable law and procedures complied with the law. The Qingyang District Court rejected Guo Yongzhu's claim.
The upstream news reporter noted that in response to the dispute case between Guo Yongzhu and Sichuan Yuhu Law Firm with a subject matter of tens of millions of yuan, the Sichuan Gaoxian People's Court held two hearings, and the Gaoxian People's Court made a first-instance judgment on February 9, 2021, that Yuhu Law Firm was not at fault for Guo Yongzhu's application for litigation property preservation, and should bear the fault liability, ordering Yuhu Law Firm to return the letter of guarantee fee and preservation fee of 40,811 yuan that Guo Yongzhu had paid, and rejecting Guo Yongzhu's other litigation claims Yuhu Law Firm bore the litigation costs of 88,411 yuan. In August 2021, the Yibin Intermediate Court rendered a final judgment upholding the first-instance judgment of Gao County.
On September 8, Guo Yongzhu told upstream reporters that the first-instance judgment against the Qingyang District Court would be appealed to the Chengdu Intermediate Court.
Source: Upstream News
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