Pan v. Chen, a lease contract dispute

-- The division of the crop planting season is inconsistent with the lease term, and the farmland lease contract can be suspended upon expiration

keyword

civil
Lease contract disputes
Green principles
Suspend the eviction of land
Crop growth period

Basic facts of the case

　　In October 2014, the plaintiff Pan leased about six acres of his farmland to the defendant Chen for vegetable planting, with an annual rent of 6,000 yuan. The first lease agreement is signed for a period of 5 years, and thereafter the lease agreement is signed every year. On 6 October 2021, the two parties signed the 2022 Land Lease Agreement, with a lease period from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022. Before the expiration of the lease, the plaintiff Pan notified the defendant Chen not to renew the lease on the grounds that he needed to plant crops, and requested the defendant to vacate the land immediately after the lease expired, but the defendant Chen refused. Chen believes that in the past, when the lease expired every year, the two parties would smoothly sign a lease renewal agreement for the next year, and when they received the plaintiff's notice not to renew the lease, they had already purchased the seeds for the next season's vegetable planting, and some vegetables had been sown and seedlings, and production materials had been prepared, and the greenhouses were re-mulched for the crops to overwinter, and the surrender of the lease would lead to great losses for themselves. At present, the vegetables are in the growth period, and it will take time to ripen and pick, as well as to dismantle the greenhouses and prepare the land, and if they vacate now, the plaintiff will have to make up for his own losses. The Zhenhai District People's Court of Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, organized both the plaintiff and the defendant to conduct an on-site investigation before the trial, jointly confirmed the current planting status and harvest time of the vegetables on the land involved in the case, learned about the defendant's input and income, and explained to the plaintiff that the current request to vacate violates the "green principle" stipulated in the Civil Code. The court also sought the parties' willingness to accept the vacant time. On March 29, 2023, the Zhenhai District People's Court of Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province rendered the (2023) Zhe 0211 Min Chu No. 981 Civil Judgment: the defendant Chen Mouhe vacated the originally leased land and returned it to the plaintiff Pan before August 31, 2023, and paid the plaintiff Pan a land occupation and use fee calculated at 500 yuan per month from January 1, 2023 to the actual performance date. The first-instance judgment has entered into force.

Reasons for the Adjudication

　　The effective judgment of the court held that the land lease contract signed between the two parties had expired, and the court confirmed this, and the plaintiff had the right to demand the defendant to return the land. However, when the plaintiff and the defendant signed the land lease contract, they set the expiration date of the lease as the end of the natural year, without taking into account that the planting season of the crops had not yet ended. Forcibly vacating land will inevitably eradicate crops that are still in the growth stage, which will cause great waste and violate the green principle of "civil subjects engaged in civil activities shall be conducive to saving resources and protecting the ecological environment" stipulated in the Civil Code. In this case, the only way to do this is to wait for the current crop to mature. Therefore, the court made the above judgment after comprehensively considering the current situation and growth cycle of the defendant's crops on the leased land. After the first-instance judgment was announced, in August 2023, the defendant Chen Mouhe vacated the land involved in the case to the plaintiff Pan, and the case was successfully concluded.

Summary of the trial

　　In the event that the division of the crop planting season is inconsistent with the lease term, the people's court may, in accordance with the green principle of "civil entities engaging in civil activities shall be conducive to saving resources and protecting the ecological environment" as stipulated in the Civil Code, rule that the land may be suspended upon expiration of the lease contract, and the lessee shall pay the lessor the lease fee for the period of extended occupation of the land.

Associate indexes

　　Articles 9, 509 and 733 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China

　　First instance: Civil Judgment of Zhenhai District People's Court of Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province (2023) Zhe 0211 Min Chu No. 981 (March 29, 2023)