Town government wins lawsuit against county government, pilot court's exclusion of administrative interference shows results.
[2] Administrative lawsuits with the government as the defendant have become common, but cases where the government is also the plaintiff are rare. Yesterday, the Jianghong Town Government of Suixi County, Zhanjiang, filed an administrative lawsuit against the Suixi County Government, which was heard in the first instance at the Zhanjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone People's Court. The presiding judge, Zhang Ming, president of the Development Zone Court, ruled in court to revoke the "Suifu (2014) No. 40 Handling Decision" issued by the Suixi County Government, meaning the Jianghong Town Government won the case against the county government. This is the first administrative case of a "lower-level government suing a higher-level government" accepted by the Development Zone Court since it became the first pilot court in Guangdong for "centralized jurisdiction over first-instance administrative cases."
[3] This case stems from a land dispute over 30 years ago. The disputed land is located southeast of Shatang Village, Guliao Village Committee, Jianghong Town, covering an area of about 21 mu. In 1980, the then Guliao Commune of Suixi County and Shatang Village signed an "Agreement," stipulating that Shatang Village would cede a piece of land to the commune for building its office and market. In 1983, the original Guliao Commune was abolished (later replaced by the Jianghong Town Government), and after several changes in administrative divisions, the land became a four-party ownership dispute involving the Shatang Village Group of Guliao Village, Jianghong Town, the Guliao Village Committee, the Jianghong Town People's Government, and a village group within the Guliao Village Committee.
[4] On July 6, 2013, Shatang Village applied to the Suixi County Government for confirmation of rights over the disputed land. On October 13, 2014, the Suixi County People's Government issued the Suifu (2014) No. 40 Handling Decision (hereinafter referred to as the "Handling Decision"), dividing the land rights among the Guliao Village Committee, Shatang Village, and Zhongyi Village Group. The Suixi County Government decided: First, the ownership and use rights of the forest land (1 mu) in the southwest corner of the disputed area belong to Zhongyi Village; Second, the ownership and use rights of the 737.12 square meters of land on which the Guliao Village Committee's office building is constructed belong to the Guliao Village Committee; Third, the ownership and use rights of other land within the disputed area belong to Shatang Village collectively; Fourth, the trees planted by Zhongyi Village on the land allocated to Shatang Village must be disposed of within 30 days from the effective date of the decision; Fifth, the roads within the disputed area shall remain as they are. The Jianghong Town Government, Guliao Village Committee, and Zhongyi Village all disagreed with the "Handling Decision" and applied to the Zhanjiang Municipal People's Government for reconsideration. On January 8, the Zhanjiang Municipal Government decided to uphold the "Handling Decision." The Jianghong Town Government, dissatisfied, sued the Suixi County Government in court, requesting the court to revoke the "Handling Decision" issued by the Suixi County People's Government.
[5] After the court hearing, the court ruled in court to revoke items two, three, and four of the "Handling Decision," but dismissed the other claims of the Jianghong Town Government. After the ruling that day, both the Jianghong Town Government and the Suixi County Government stated they would accept the judgment.
[6] (Guangzhou Daily)
The pilot project of judicial exclusion of administrative intervention has achieved initial results.
The Zhanjiang Economic Development Zone Court is the first grassroots court in Guangdong Province to implement "centralized jurisdiction over first-instance administrative cases." The pilot began on November 21 last year, and as of March 19 this year, the court had accepted a total of 170 administrative cases. According to Shen Biqing, head of the Administrative Division of the Zhanjiang Economic Development Zone Court, to address the issue of "litigants not seeing officials," the court used the president and vice presidents as presiding judges to compel administrative heads to appear in court. Cases presided over by the president or vice presidents totaled 24, accounting for 35.3% of administrative litigation cases. Administrative heads responded to lawsuits in 9 cases, representing 30% of the cases that had been heard, whereas this figure was zero before centralized jurisdiction.
Data shows that after centralized jurisdiction, the rate of administrative agencies losing lawsuits significantly increased to 21%, compared to 4% to 8% before centralized jurisdiction. "This indicates that centralized jurisdiction has enhanced the court's ability to exclude administrative intervention," said Zhang Ming. The court's caseload of administrative litigation cases in three months was equivalent to 35.4% of the total caseload of all grassroots courts in the city in the previous year, while the number of judges was only one-third of the original total. The per capita caseload increased threefold. It is expected that after the implementation of the case registration system for administrative cases on May 1, the number of administrative litigation cases will surge.
