Recently, Haikou Maritime Court efficiently concluded a non-contentious administrative case where several persons subject to enforcement were held jointly and severally liable to fulfill monetary obligations. Through explanation of the law and reasoning with patience and upon coordination and communication between the parties, the judges delivered good results and won recognition from the parties in the pursuit of justice and concern of the people.

 

Fully understand the basic facts of the case to work out an enforcement scheme

 

In this case, the four persons subject to enforcement were former shareholders of a de-registered company, who were held jointly liable under an effective legal instrument to pay administrative authorities a royalty for using sea areas plus a late fee, total of more than 1.02 million yuan. However, as one of the shareholders was in jail for a criminal offence, the others were reluctant to fulfill or only agreed to assume liability in proportion to their shareholding ratio, for fear of failure to recover their sums of money if they overburdened the debt. Upon property enquiry, the judges found that there was real estate in the name of all the shareholders respectively, but the savings they had in banks were not sufficient to cover the debt.

 

To solve the problem hindering the enforcement procedures, after seizing their properties, the judges continued with the analysis of the facts of the case to find the point where a solution was expected and finally worked out an enforcement scheme according to the circumstances: first, the savings in the bank account of the jailed shareholder was used to offset the debt, and the news was given to the other three partners to ease their concerns that the outstanding amount due from the jailed partner had been reduced to 70,000 yuan, upon which judges persuaded them to first make due payment according to the proportion of shares held by them.  

 

Explain the law and give reasoning to solicit cooperation from the parties

 

With the enforcement scheme fixed, the judges explained the law and gave reasoning to the shareholders with great patience, making it clear that they were jointly liable to pay off the debt and that there was legal basis for them to recover their sums of money if they paid more than they were obligated to pay. The judges also assured the shareholders that the scheme was the best option to avoid the burden of litigation on them that might arise if they sought to recover loss from one another.

 

The judges also met the jailed shareholder to learn about what he had in mind about the payment of the remaining debt. To ensure that the jailed shareholder paid the outstanding amount in time, the judges arranged a phone call for him and his family with the assistance of the prison officers, and advised his family to borrow 70,000 yuan and pay off the debt.

 

Upon rounds of communication, the other three shareholders finally paid off their portion of the debt, and one of them was so generous that he offered a loan to the jailed partner to pay the balance.

 

Remove the barriers to expedite receipt of payment

 

When making payment to the bank account designated by the court, some payers could not effect payment through online banking, as they could not correctly select the receiving bank. The judges contacted the bank to require prompt refund to the payers and inquired about how the payment should be made. The judges then guided the payers to finally pay the amounts to the court’s designated account.

 

Thanks to the consistent efforts of the judges, the case was finally concluded with the active cooperation from all the persons subject to enforcement. As a total of 18 sums of money were paid, the court released the seized properties, hence the final conclusion of the case.  

 

In this case, the judges kept in mind the judicial concept of carrying out enforcement in a gentle and civilized manner and unified the effects of law and reasoning while caring for the sentiments of the people throughout the enforcement work. By heeding the voices of the parties to ensure that they could see that justice was served, the judges successfully brought the case to a happy ending where the parties were not affected by a recourse dispute and avoided having their real property auctioned or sold off.