This is a loan guarantee case that lasted for 12 years and 8 months, and went through the first and second trials to be remanded for retrial, the first instance again, the second instance again, the retrial, the Supreme People's Procuratorate's protest, and the Supreme People's Court's retrial. In October this year, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, together with the Guangxi ** legal inspection department and the local party committee, successfully resolved this old case, and realized the conclusion of the case and the "prevention of disease".
Behind the dust of twelve years of disputes
The flight from Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, to Beijing was almost full. The cabin was cramped, crowded with people, with the help of flight attendants, who put their luggage in the luggage racks.
Buckle up, one of the passengers, Yang Xinzhong, a judge of the Supreme People's Court's Trial Supervision Division, felt a sense of steady. He was going to wait for the plane to land and send a text message to Ding Xiaohua and Shi Sai, procurators of the Sixth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, telling them the good news that the conflict had been successfully resolved. Luo Dian, the vice president next to him, patted Yang Xinzhong's shoulder, and the two looked at each other and smiled: "It's good, the case is closed." ”
At this time, more than 200 kilometers away in Bobai County, Guangxi, Liu Xinping, Secretary of the Party Group and Chairman of the Ideal Financial Company, was still thinking back on the dozens of hours he had just spent, and the process was a bit long, but the mood after that was quite relaxed: the "burden" of an old lawsuit was unloaded, and next, together with the Council, he would lead the whole company to take a good path of future development.
For the legal inspection departments of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yulin City, and Bobai County, the past few days seem to be a large-scale "examination". How to take into account national law, natural reason, and human feelings, how to achieve the organic unity of political, social, and legal effects, how to embody the essence of the concept of active justice, and how to give full play to the ...... of the linkage between the government and the courtAfter this work of resolving contradictions, everyone has a deeper understanding.
From take-off to landing, Luo Dian and Yang Xinzhong's flight back to Beijing was smooth and there were no bumps.
A single verdict cannot truly untie this "dead knot" that has been entangled for 12 years
On the way to Guangxi to carry out conflict resolution work, Luo Dian and Yang Xinzhong's two hearts rose and fell in the sky with the plane.
Luo Dian was planning the "step diagram" to resolve the contradiction in his mind, and at the same time encouraged Yang Xinzhong and himself: he must be able to "gnaw" this "hard bone".
Speaking of "hard bones", the time has to go back to 2008.
In February and September of that year, Ideal Finance Company signed two guarantee loan contracts with the borrower Gaocang Company, the guarantor Gaojian Company, and the guarantor Liu Yingquan, with a total loan of 6 million yuan for one year each. Among them, Gaojian Company is the parent company of Gaocang Company, and Liu Yingquan is a villager of a village in Bobai County.
But the unexpected happened quickly. In October, the capital chain of Gaojian Company was broken, unable to pay off the huge debts due, and its legal representative fell to his death, causing an uproar in the society. After the incident, creditors from all over the country flocked to the court, and the court accepted hundreds of lawsuits involving Gaojian Company and its subsidiaries, involving billions of yuan.
In 2011, because only more than 1.67 million yuan was repaid from the bankruptcy case of Gaojian Company, and the principal and interest of the loan issued to Gaocang Company could not be fully recovered, Ideal Finance Company sued Liu Yingquan to the court, requesting him to bear the guarantee liability and repay the remaining principal and interest. Liu Yingquan argued that he was not the guarantor of the loan contract on the grounds that he had never profited from the loan relationship and was only a "witness" to the signing of the contract by Li Finance.
The Yulin Intermediate People's Court ruled in favor of Ideal Finance Company in the first instance, Liu Yingquan was not satisfied and appealed, and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region High People's Court remanded the case for retrial, but the Yulin Intermediate People's Court upheld the original judgment in the second instance and the Guangxi High People's Court in the second instance. In 2013, the two parties reached an Enforcement Settlement Agreement during the execution of the case, in which Liu Yingquan used his own real estate as collateral to repay the debt with a loan, but his right of recovery failed to be realized due to the bankruptcy of Gaocang Company and Gaojian Company.
Since responding to the lawsuit, Liu Yingquan has always insisted that he is not the "guarantor" of the loan contract. In order to protect his own interests, he insisted on appealing while constantly petitioning.
In 2016, the Guangxi High Court decided to retry the case. In 2018, after discussion at the plenary meeting of the review committee, the Guangxi High People's Court changed the judgment that Liu Yingquan did not need to bear the guarantee liability on the grounds that it was unreasonable for Liu Yingquan to provide guarantee for Gaocang's loans.
In 2019, Li Finance Company was dissatisfied with the retrial result of the Guangxi High Court and filed a complaint with the People's Procuratorate of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. At the end of January 2022, the Supreme People's Procuratorate formally lodged a protest with the Supreme People's Court, arguing that the Guangxi High People's Court's determination that Liu Yingquan's guarantee was not the guarantor of the case lacked factual and legal basis on the grounds that Liu Yingquan's provision of a guarantee was not in accordance with common sense, and requested the Supreme People's Court to retry the case in accordance with the law.
Ideal Finance Company has always been unable to figure it out, the contract is clearly written in black and white, no matter how you look at it, you should be able to recover the arrears, but it keeps going around and around in this case.
After receiving the civil protest from the Supreme People's Procuratorate, Luo Dian and Yang Xinzhong immediately reviewed all the files and further learned about the situation by contacting the Guangxi court and going to the local court. As they delved deeper into the facts of the case, they noticed three key issues when Li Financial Company signed the contract that year:
First, lending is arbitrary. The guarantor, Gaojian Company, and the debtor, Gaocang Company, are the parent and subsidiary, and the legal representative is the same person, but Ideal Finance Company ignored the risks and could have taken property insurance but failed to do so
Second, the signing is chaotic. The signature of "Liu Yingquan" on the header of the contract was written by the staff of Ideal Finance Company, while the signature of Liu Yingquan at the settlement office was either at the guarantor or at the handler
Third, slackness in debt collection. The dispute in this case arose as long as one year after the maturity of the creditor's rights until the debtor Gaocang Company and the guarantor Gaojian Company went bankrupt and could not be fully repaid.
In other words, although it is reasonable for the Supreme People's Procuratorate to faithfully perform its supervisory duties and protest in accordance with the law, the Guangxi High Court's retrial judgment was fully considered and carefully considered within the legal framework under the circumstances that Li Financial Company's non-standard lending operations had buried hidden dangers and Liu Yingquan frequently petitioned to protect his interests.
Now that the parties have exhausted all judicial procedures, even if the final judgment is made by the Supreme People's Court, will it be completely fair?Can the purpose of "the case is closed" be achieved?Will there be a chain reaction in the future?Is Ideal Finance Company convinced?Did they realize that there was a problem with the management of the year?Will Liu Yingquan, who is over 70 years old, take a more drastic approach to protect his interests?Will it leave hidden dangers to local social stability?
The above situations and problems repeatedly swirled in the minds of Luo Dian and Yang Xinzhong.
There must be other ways to untie the "dead knot" of this case.
Look for a better solution within the discretionary space of legal norms
If the key points of contradiction cannot be found, the whole case will be a mess. Only when the key points are identified can the work plan be formulated. Luo Dian and Yang Xinzhong believe that the deficiencies and loopholes in the operation of the ideal financial company are the source of this case, if it can realize this and take the initiative to standardize the business behavior, it will not only help to resolve the contradictions, but also "grasp the front end, cure the disease", and promote the healthy development of the local economy and society.
In September this year, after an open trial and two collegial panel meetings, the Supreme People's Court Trial and Supervision Division Judges Meeting held that if this case is simply decided, "the case will not be resolved" and "one case will be closed and many cases will be concluded", and doing contradiction resolution work can not only resolve disputes, but also effectively avoid risks. After the internal opinions were agreed, President Hu Shihao immediately communicated with Feng Xiaoguang, director of the Sixth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and at the same time, Luo Dian led a team to the Sixth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate to report the relevant situation in a timely manner.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate's protest was based on law and evidence, but Liu Yingquan's fierce efforts to protect his interests were not fully reflected in the appeal materials at the time. The Sixth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate does not want this case to go through all the judicial procedures, but it still cannot untie the legal knot of the parties. After studying, they held that considering that although the relationship between the procuratorate and the procuratorate is that of supervision and supervision, the common purpose is to safeguard social justice and resolve social contradictions, they will fully support the contradiction resolution plan proposed by the Supreme People's Court.
After reaching a consensus, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate decided to go to the local area together to resolve the conflict.
Compared with direct judgment, conflict resolution is a more challenging and thorny road. But the dangerous path often leads to the scenery, and it is worth the walk anyway.
Without political guidance, it is difficult to successfully resolve this contradiction by relying on the courts alone. From the very beginning, we set a strategy, not only to work together with the four-level legal inspection departments, but also to win the support of the local party committee and the first party. To this end, Luo Dian and Yang Xinzhong studied a set of plans for "party spirit first, legal inspection coordination, government and hospital linkage, upper and lower cooperation, and relying on the locality".
Huang Hailong, president of the Guangxi Higher People's Court, attached great importance to the conflict resolution work, and asked the Guangxi ** court to fully cooperate, actively report the situation to the local party committee and ** and strive for support. Huang Hongzhan, member of the Standing Committee of the Yulin Municipal Party Committee and secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, gave instructions and asked the local government to cooperate in resolving the contradictions. Guan Zhangwei, member of the Standing Committee of the Bobai County Party Committee and deputy county magistrate, Xie Jiafeng, member of the Standing Committee of the county party committee and secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, and Luo Sa, president of the Bobai County People's Court, had a direct dialogue with the person in charge of the ideal financial company. In terms of procuratorates, the Supreme People's Procuratorate actively coordinated the procuratorates of Guangxi, Yulin, and Bobai to participate in the resolution of contradictions.
Before this year's "Eleventh" holiday, Cheng Liwen, president of the First Trial and Supervision Division of the Guangxi High Court, received a call from Luo Dian, who asked the local court to be sure to find out the situation of the parties.
After understanding, it was found that Liu Yingquan is currently paralyzed by stroke, his health and family conditions are very poor, and his economic conditions are only enough to maintain his life.
Based on this, the two parties generally believe that it is still the best solution to fit the actual situation if they want to completely resolve the conflict and make Ideal Finance Company realize its problems in this case and withdraw the complaint.
The arrow is on the string and must be hit in one shot.
The interpretation of the law and reasoning have been cooperating with each other, and the 12-year-old case has been substantively resolved
On the afternoon of October 9, a plane from Beijing landed in Nanning. Luo Dian, Yang Xinzhong, Ding Xiaohua, Shi Sai and others went straight to the Guangxi High Court as soon as they got out of the airport.
Since it is a four-level linkage of legal inspection departments, no one is a bystander, and no one is an outsider. If you want to cooperate in place, you must understand the facts of the case thoroughly. Cheng Liwen recalled that in order to find a breakthrough in the contradiction, everyone held another meeting in the Guangxi High Court to study the case until more than 1 o'clock in the morning.
The key is to explain the legal principles, and also explain the importance of the unity of the political, social and legal effects of the case, so as to help the ideal financial company fully understand the actual situation of the case and its own problems. Luo Dian said, "Thought is the driving force. It is necessary to make the ideal financial company aware of the need to withdraw the complaint. ”
The next day, more than 10 leading comrades from the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Guangxi ** Legal Inspection Department, the Bobai County Party Committee and the ** gathered in the conference room on the 15th floor of the Yulin Intermediate Court to hold the "Contradiction Resolution Coordination Meeting" to make final preparations for the work to be carried out, so as to achieve unity of thought, determine the direction, and clarify the division of labor.
At that time, everyone's goal was very consistent, that is, with the belief of victory, we did everything possible to organize forces to completely resolve contradictions and disputes. Chen Rui, executive vice president of Yulin Intermediate Court, recalled the situation at that time and remembered an idiom, "fighting against the water".
The soldiers are divided into two routes, and the localities go first. In the afternoon of the same day, Liu Xinping, who had just served for more than a year, hurried to the conference room on the 13th floor of Yulin Intermediate Court with the legal staff. Guan Zhangwei, Xie Jiafeng, Luo Sa and others were already waiting at the round table. In the face of local leaders, Liu Xinping poured "bitter water", and this 12-year-long lawsuit is also a burden for them to get rid of. Soon, Chen Rui joined the mediation team to further explain the law and reason. At the same time, the "main venue" on the 15th floor is keeping abreast of the progress through Chen Rui and Luo Sa.
As time passed, Liu Xinping gradually let go of his psychological baggage, and his attitude began to loosen. When he came to the conference room on the 15th floor, he met with the judges and prosecutors of the "two supremes".
Secretary Liu, we are all party members and cadres, so let's call us party positions. Luo Dian did not call Liu Xinping "chairman", but called him "secretary" with his position in the party, "The party has handed over important posts to you, and you must do a good job and lead a good team." ”
Don't be stressed. Everyone presents the facts, reasones, helps you analyze the case, understand the law, and work together to find a solution to the problem. Seeing Liu Xinping's hesitation, Ding Xiaohua immediately stated that he could speak freely if he had any demands and concerns.
From sorting out the facts of the case to explaining the law, from explaining the reasonableness to stressing politics and looking at the overall situation, the authority and professionalism of the "two supremes" and the sincerity of the local party committee, ** and the legal inspection department further prompted Liu Xinping to accept the solution of withdrawing the appeal.
Liu Yingquan is in poor condition in all aspects, and he is also burdened with other debts with our company, even if all his assets are executed, it will not be enough to repay the principal and interest of the loan in this case. Moreover, calming his excesses in this case will help him to cooperate more with the enforcement of the funds in other loan disputes with us. Afterwards, Liu Xinping told reporters, "Even if we insist on the original demand, the form is greater than the reality, not to mention the waste of judicial resources, it will not achieve the expected economic benefits, and may even intensify the contradictions." As local financial institutions, they should shoulder the responsibility of maintaining social stability. ”
During the mediation process, in order to make Ideal Finance Company aware of its own shortcomings, Yang Xinzhong made an in-depth analysis of the problems of irregular lending and contract signing and untimely debt collection more than ten years ago. "If you had standardized the operation back then, the dispute in this case could have been avoided, and the unnecessary petitions of the parties could have been avoided. ”
In this regard, Liu Xinping accepted it on the spot and said that he would strengthen rectification. "As a financial practitioner, the first task is to handle every business in accordance with the law. Although the company now has a set of strict rules and regulations, and there will be no more problems from 12 years ago, it will still further strengthen business review, continue to check and fill gaps, and improve operation and management. ”
The SPC has a high degree of view, neutrality, authority and comprehensiveness, and the problems pointed out are not only a kind of guidance and warning for us, but also conducive to improving the management standardization level of the entire industry in the region. Liu Xinping said.
However, Liu Xinping said that although he agreed to the solution, whether to withdraw the complaint still needs to be discussed by the company's board of directors before a decision can be made. In order to better explain the law and reason, early the next morning, Chen Rui, Guan Zhangwei, and Luo Sa went to the ideal financial company with Liu Xinping to do work for the board members one by one. At around 12:30 p.m., the Board finally reached a consensus to withdraw the complaint.
At this moment, there is only one last procedure left to leave the whirlpool of 12 years of disputes - to obtain the consent of the superior authorities of Ideal Financial Company. As early as the night before, Cheng Liwen had repeatedly called the relevant person in charge of the higher-level competent department to explain the various considerations and corresponding social effects of the two forensic inspection companies to resolve the case by persuading the ideal financial company to withdraw the complaint. After full communication, the higher-level authorities immediately expressed their active support.
Soon, Li Finance's request to withdraw the appeal was successfully approved.
Subsequently, Liu Xinping, with the help of Yang Xinzhong's remote guidance and Chen Rui and Luo Sa, wrote and revised the application for withdrawal of the appeal, which was already 9 p.m. on October 11.
At 6 o'clock in the morning of the next day, Luo Sa drove from Bobai County to Nanning Wuxu International Airport, and before Luo Dian and Yang Xinzhong's flight back to Beijing took off, he solemnly handed over the application for withdrawal of the appeal of the Ideal Financial Company to them.
So far, a loan guarantee dispute that lasted for 12 years and 8 months has been completely resolved.
Adhere to the party's leadership, persist in active justice, and realize political communication and "cure diseases before they occur".
Luo Sa calculated the time, and the mediation took "less than 30 hours" from the beginning to the withdrawal of the appeal.
Luo Dian used five "benefits" to summarize why such efficiency can be achieved in resolving the contradiction: thanks to the effective play of the political advantages of the party's leadership, thanks to the joint efforts of the two judicial procuratorates, thanks to the linkage between the government and the court, thanks to the close cooperation between the courts and procuratorates at the lower and lower levels, and thanks to the local reality.
The retrial work should give full play to the party's leadership's greatest political advantages, organically combine stressing politics with governance, closely rely on the party's leadership, and strive for the understanding and support of all quarters, so as to achieve a win-win situation, a win-win situation, and a win-win situation. Luo Dian said.
Without the support of the leaders of the party committees at all levels, it would be difficult for the courts alone to promote the work of resolving the contradictions. Regarding the importance of the support of the party committee, Huang Bingcai, a judge of the Executive Bureau of the Yulin Intermediate People's Court, who also participated in the conflict resolution work and has worked at the grassroots level for more than 30 years, was deeply touched. "Even if it is a long-term petition case, as long as the parties are reasonable, and the party committee, the first court, and the procuratorate work together to find a way, it is not difficult to solve the problem. ”
Chen Rui believes that for some disputes that are complicated, have sharp contradictions, and may even affect social stability, the courts should take the initiative to report to the party committee in a timely manner. "Because the advantage of the party committee is to control the overall situation, coordinate all parties, and mobilize relevant departments to form a joint force, which is conducive to doing the work of the parties from different angles, so as to promote the resolution of contradictions and disputes. ”
What is justice?How to achieve justice?How to better practice the concept of active justice?
All the forensic prosecutors who have gone through this case are thinking about these questions.
This 12-year-8-month litigation "marathon" reminded Luo Sa of the "case-to-case ratio" that was put forward at the National Seminar for Officials in July this year to promote the modernization of trial management.
It is not easy for ordinary people to fight lawsuits. He sighed, "In the face of contradictions and disputes, we should find ways to solve them as much as possible at one time, so as to avoid many cases arising from one case." ”
Zhang Jun, president of the Supreme People's Court, said that ordinary people come to the court to solve problems, and they are by no means to 'go through procedures'. Huang Hailong, president of the Guangxi Higher People's Court, also asked the Guangxi court to resolve the dispute as soon as possible. For the judges of the trial supervision division, in the retrial stage, it is especially necessary to strive to untie the parties' 'heart knots' and 'legal knots' to avoid procedural idling. Cheng Liwen told reporters, "You can't let the parties finish the lawsuit without solving the problem." ”
With millions of dollars in debt, non-stop litigation, and a collapse of their bodies and families, will they agree with the party's governance?Will the non-standard operation and management of financial institutions bring losses to the state?All this is not conducive to strengthening the party's ruling foundation. Combined with this year's study and Xi implementation of the theme education of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, Hu Hailan thought a lot, "When judges handle cases, they cannot only investigate the case itself, but also investigate the relevant circumstances clearly, not only to ensure that the procedures and entities do not make mistakes in the law, but also to consider the case from the perspective of strengthening the party's ruling foundation in the depths of ideology." ”
Luo Dian believes that a major feature of the cases accepted by the trial supervision tribunal is that "time has passed."
The loan guarantee dispute between Li Finance Company and Liu Yingquan is a typical case of "time passing". With the passage of time, not only have the circumstances of the parties changed, but the economic and social conditions, relevant laws and regulations were also different from the beginning, and those long-standing grievances could not be easily dissipated by a gavel.
When handling cases, judges must apply the law on the basis of comprehensive consideration, rather than mechanically understanding the law. It is necessary to understand the original legislative intent hidden behind the law from the explicit provisions, and to look at the case from the development viewpoint of historical materialism. Luo Dian said, "In the retrial stage, the parties have sharp contradictions, and compared with the first and second instance, more attention should be paid to the use of mediation methods to facilitate the final resolution of the dispute." ”
For such cases, he concluded, "It is more necessary for the legal inspection and case-handling personnel to have a higher political position, a stronger sense of party spirit, a deep understanding of the society, an accurate grasp of the public's emotions, and an accurate analysis of the parties' demands and reasons, so as to determine a better handling plan within the discretionary space of legal norms." ”
As far as the procuratorial organs are concerned, this work of resolving contradictions has also brought them a lot of enlightenment.
Supervision is not the goal, but the ultimate goal is to settle the case. Referring to the thinking brought by the case, the prosecutors of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Guangxi ** Procuratorate who participated in the conflict resolution work have said.
Liang Wei, director of the Fourth Procuratorial Department of the Yulin City People's Procuratorate, and Luo Zhirong, director of the Fourth Procuratorial Department of the Bobai County People's Procuratorate, both believe that this contradiction resolution provides a new idea for deepening and solidifying the "Fengqiao experience" in the new era in practice in the future.
The case has not been resolved after many years, which has increased the litigation burden of the parties in vain, and the parties will not be easily 'convinced' by either party in the case that has come to this point. Qin Xingsheng, deputy director of the Sixth Procuratorate Department of the People's Procuratorate of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, participated in the formulation of the contradiction resolution plan in this case, and he believes that the goal of the procuratorate and the law is the same, both in order to achieve the organic unity of the political effect, social effect and legal effect of the case, "It is necessary to find a balance between the interests of both parties, actively resolve the contradictions, and let the parties open the 'legal knot' and 'heart knot'." ”
The final disposition of a case cannot be based on a single judgment. Only by implementing the concept of active justice, practicing the 'Fengqiao experience' in the new era, identifying the deep-seated root causes of the problem, and prompting the parties to open the 'heart knot' and voluntarily reach a dispute resolution through interpretation of the law and reasoning, can the conflict be truly resolved. Ding Xiaohua said, "This case not only resolves the long-standing grievances between the two parties, but also regulates the business behavior of a region and an industry to avoid the occurrence of more similar cases, which is a good thing for more people to benefit, and it is also the due meaning of the judiciary to serve the overall situation, the people's justice, and the rule of law." ”
At the request of the interviewee, Liu Xinping, Liu Yingquan, Ideal Financial Company, Gaocang Company, and Gaojian Company are pseudonyms).
*: People's Court Daily reporter: Jiang Peishan.