Brief facts of the case
Mrs. Zhang got the compensation of 500 yuan, smiled happily, and said in a loud voice, "Arbitration is good, arbitration is good, consumer rights protection is a magic weapon." In order to celebrate the 30th anniversary of her marriage to Mr. Wang, she bought a cashmere jacket of 2,800 yuan for Mr. Wang. Mrs. Zhang felt sorry for both her sweetheart and her new clothes, so she settled Mr. Wang and hurriedly sent the clothes to a brand dry cleaner not far from her home for dry cleaning. When the problem came, Mrs. Zhang found that there was an obvious bright mark on the back of the clothes, thinking that it was caused by external forces during dry cleaning, and asked for compensation for the clothes, while the dry cleaners thought that it was the original defect of the clothes, not caused by external forces of dry cleaning, and only agreed to refund the dry cleaning fee. Mrs. Zhang, in the end, is a cultural person, and she actually turned up the "People's Republic of China Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law", and when she read Article 34, Item 4, her eyes lit up: "If a consumer and a business operator have a dispute over consumer rights and interests, they can apply to an arbitration institution for arbitration according to the arbitration agreement reached with the operator." The dry cleaner also felt that Mrs. Zhang came to make trouble every day and affected the business, so she arbitrated it, and she should pay for it. The two parties soon reached a written arbitration agreement to submit the resulting laundry dry cleaning dispute to the Lanzhou Arbitration Commission for arbitration.
Outcome of the trial
Since the subject matter of the dispute between the parties is not large, and the parties fail to select the arbitrator within the prescribed time limit, the Lanzhou Arbitration Commission appoints an arbitrator to form an arbitral tribunal to hear the case. The arbitral tribunal held that when Mrs. Zhang sent her for washing, although the pick-up list issued by the dry cleaner indicated "wear, oil, brightness and fluffing", it did not specify the specific defects in the specific parts, and after inspection, the dry cleaners made such marks no matter what kind of clothes, and now Mrs. Zhang's clothes had a visible bright mark about 3 cm wide and about 40 cm long, and according to the principle of allocation of the burden of proof, the dry cleaner should prove that the dry cleaning service it provided had no quality problems, but the dry cleaner had no evidence to prove that the bright mark was the original defect of the clothes before the dry cleaning. Therefore, it should be liable for compensation. When the arbitral tribunal said this, the parties were convinced, and after mediation by the arbitral tribunal, the dry cleaner paid Mrs. Zhang a lump sum of 500 yuan. This consumer dispute was successfully resolved within 10 days, can Mrs. Zhang not be happy?
Case Analysis
Consumer disputes are commonplace in our daily life, and it is rare for people like Mrs. Zhang to take the initiative to use arbitration to protect their rights after consumer disputes occur, mainly because many people do not know much about the arbitration law. So what problems can arbitration solve? What is the arbitration agreement referred to in this case?
First, what kind of disputes or controversies can be resolved by arbitration? According to the provisions of the Arbitration Law, contract disputes and other disputes over property rights and interests between natural persons, legal persons and other organizations that are equal subjects may apply for arbitration. Contract disputes here refer to: 1. General contract disputes: sales contracts, construction contracts, contract contracts, transportation contracts, power supply, water, gas, heat contracts, storage and storage contracts, lease contracts, loan contracts, insurance contracts, gift contracts, entrustment contracts and other disputes. 2. Technology contract disputes: technology development contracts, technology transfer contracts, technical consulting contracts, technical service contracts and other disputes. 3. Copyright contract disputes: license contracts, commissioned creation contracts, publishing contracts and other disputes. 4. Trademark license contract disputes. 5. Real estate contract disputes: real estate transfer contracts, real estate mortgage contracts, housing lease contracts and other disputes. 6. Other civil and commercial contract disputes. Other property rights and interests disputes refer to infringement disputes that often arise in the fields of real estate, product quality, intellectual property rights, etc. For example, doctor-patient disputes, insurance disputes, consumer disputes, sales disputes, traffic accident disputes, etc., which we encounter in our daily life, can be resolved through arbitration. It can be said that except for civil and commercial disputes related to personal relationships, which cannot be arbitrated, other civil and commercial disputes can be resolved through arbitration.
Second, what is an arbitration agreement? An arbitration agreement, also known as an arbitration contract, refers to an expression of intent reached by the parties on the basis of voluntariness, consultation, equality and mutual benefit to submit contractual disputes that have occurred or may occur in the future to arbitration institutions. The arbitration agreement consists of three aspects: first, the expression of intent to request arbitration; second, clear arbitration matters; The third is the selected arbitration committee. The standard arbitration agreement is as follows: the parties shall settle the dispute arising from this contract through negotiation, and submit it to the Lanzhou Arbitration Commission for arbitration if the negotiation fails. In the normative agreement, the submission to arbitration is an expression of intent, and the disputes arising from this contract are arbitration matters, and the Lanzhou Arbitration Commission is the selected arbitration institution.
According to Article 4 of the Arbitration Law, the arbitration agreement is the basis for the application for arbitration and the acceptance of the application by the arbitration institution, and the parties shall reach an arbitration agreement on their own volition. In the absence of an arbitration agreement, if one party applies for arbitration, the arbitration commission shall not accept it. Therefore, there must be an arbitration agreement to apply for arbitration. An arbitration agreement can be reached before a dispute arises or after a dispute has arisen. In this case, if Mrs. Zhang and the dry cleaner could not reach an arbitration agreement after the dispute had arisen, the dispute could not be resolved by arbitration.
Contributed by Wang Pingxia
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Shuqian
Editor: Han Xiaowen
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