Dalian court accused of counterfeiting notice(2)

Misgivings about withdrawing a lawsuit

The legal experts who have long been concerned about the case thought that it was not a simple case to execute.

"On Sept. 25, 2006, the Intermediate People's Court in Dalian issued an enforcement notice, ordering Dalian Wal-Mart to fulfill it before Oct. 10, 2006. Next day, Dalian Wal-Mart signed for it, which showed that Dalian Wal-Mart was fully aware of its legal responsibilities," the professor of the Law School of Fudan University Duan Houxing, who had long been concerning the case, said in an interview on Aug. 26, 2012.

Duan said that it was not difficult to execute the judgment to such companies as Wal-Mart. "The essence of the case is the rental contract dispute and the content of execution is compensation. If failing in repeated persuasion, the court can close the case by freezing the bank account of Wal-Mart or detaining the person in charge on the ground of refusing to fulfill the judgment, maliciously fighting against Chinese law or other reasons. I'm afraid that some human factors delayed the execution," said Duan. It was also what Dalian Wanguo most worried.

The court enforced the case on Sept. 25, 2006 and the deadline was Oct. 10, 2006.

"We asked about the progress of execution for several times after Oct. 10 and were told it was under execution," Lin said, "Later, we went to the court to check about the progress but the court said that their archives have been moved out and they cannot find the serial number of the case. Not until we threatened to call the police did the court promise to find it. But it has been dragged on until 2011."

According to Dalian Wanguo, they found a record of question marked "Dec. 4, 2006" in the file of the case. The record said that Zhou Yuling, director of the Office of Dalian Wanguo and the authorized representative of the case, had signed to confirm that "both sides have fulfilled their responsibilities and Dalian Wanguo requested to withdraw the execution" and "Dalian Wanguo agreed the termination of the execution." 

"I went to see it when first being found in 2011. It was absolutely not my handwriting," Zhou said, "When seeing it, I first surprised and then I knew I was wronged."

"Seeing it, I realized that we had "nolle prosequi" six years ago," Lin said.

The senior director of the department of public relations of the Wal-Mart China Li Ling told the reporter on the telephone on Aug. 26 that as it involved in legal issues, they will make a response after confirmation with the Ministry of Justice.