Why can the hotel be exempted from liability when a mentally ill person kills a guest?
I'm sorry, but it seems the Chinese text you intended to provide is missing. Please provide the Chinese content you'd like translated.PromptYang Bing, who was waiting at the front desk to check out, was knocked down by a man wielding a stick and beaten to death within a dozen minutes. The perpetrator was a mentally ill person. Recently, the Tianhe District Court in Guangzhou issued a first-instance judgment in the case, awarding a total of 97 yuan in compensation for Yang Bing’s death, funeral expenses, and other costs, including 100,000 yuan in emotional distress damages. The perpetrator, Ou, was ordered to bear full responsibility.
[Case]On March 24, 2012, Yang Bing, a young man from Shandong who was spending his weekend at South China University of Technology for further studies, went to the front desk of Jilv Hotel near the campus to check out. While waiting at the front desk to settle his bill, a heavy club suddenly struck Yang Bing, and the 1.8-meter-tall man collapsed on the spot. The hotel staff had long since vanished. More than ten minutes later, 27-year-old Yang Bing passed away. What is utterly baffling, however, is that the attacker, Ou, was a complete stranger to Yang Bing—Ou, then 35 years old, was a mentally ill person.
Later, the Yang family sued the hotel and the perpetrator's family in court, seeking one million yuan in damages and demanding that both parties bear joint and several liability. After trial, the court held that Ou had beaten Yang Bing, a hotel guest, to death and should bear corresponding civil compensation liability in accordance with the law, paying Yang Bing's parents a total of 976,000 yuan for funeral expenses and death compensation. Given that Ou was in a period of illness at the time and his parents had failed to fulfill their guardianship duties, the above compensation was to be paid from Ou's property, with his parents responsible for covering any shortfall.
After the court hearing, Yang's parents reached a mediation agreement with the hotel, promising that the latter would not be held liable for any further responsibility after paying 228,000 yuan in mediation compensation. They also stated that since the hotel bore supplementary liability, the 228,000 yuan already paid could be deducted from the total compensation ultimately obtained by the Yang family.
(New Express)
[Legal Learning] Article 18 of China's Criminal Law provides: "A mentally ill person who causes harmful consequences when he is unable to recognize or control his own conduct shall not bear criminal responsibility upon confirmation through legal procedure, but his family members or guardians shall be ordered to keep him under strict surveillance and arrange for his medical treatment; when necessary, the government may arrange for compulsory medical treatment. A mentally ill person who commits a crime when he is in a normal mental state during an intermittent period shall bear criminal responsibility. A mentally ill person who has not completely lost the ability to recognize or control his own conduct but commits a crime shall bear criminal responsibility, but may be given a lighter or mitigated punishment. A person who commits a crime when intoxicated shall bear criminal responsibility."
In criminal law, mental patients with full or limited capacity for civil conduct who commit crimes must bear criminal responsibility; only those with no capacity for civil conduct are exempt from criminal responsibility. Intermittent mental patients who commit crimes when not in a psychotic state must also bear criminal responsibility.
Correspondingly, civil compensation for a mental patient subject to criminal responsibility shall be borne by their guardian. If the mental patient has property, that property shall be used first for compensation, with the guardian supplementing any shortfall.
