This case is a dispute over the EPC general contract for the construction of a coal processing and washing project. The cause of the case was that after the commissioning of a large state-owned coal processing plant constructed under the EPC general contract of the client, the contractor (i.e. the plaintiff in the case, one of the leading state-owned enterprises in the coal industry in Shanxi Province) considered that the production capacity of the plant did not comply with the agreement, and thus sued to the court, claiming for nearly 30 million dollars.

The client (the defendant in this case) is an international engineering company specializing in coal washing, which is quite prestigious in the domestic coal washing industry, and after being sued, its corporate image of goodwill and technological benchmarking accumulated over the past twenty years has been questioned. Therefore, it attached great importance to the case, and entrusted Mr. Tang Lijun and Mr. Liang Wei from King&Capital to represent the case after receiving the notice from the court.

The plaintiff submitted to the court evidence comprehensive and solid, the chain of evidence is more complete, the overall litigation situation is unfavorable to the client. Specifically manifested in, first, for the focus of the dispute, both sides are each side of the argument, and all have proof of the size of roughly equal evidence to offset each other's claims, so that the judge is trapped in the “fog” situation; Second, for the project capacity whether the scope of engineering quality, China's law for the issue does not stipulate, the judge discretionary space. Discretionary space. In addition, unlike common construction cases, this case is not only civil construction, but also involves production equipment, production system operation and linkage, that is, the project is a “living” thing, the production capacity involves a large number of coal selection and washing of professional and technical issues, how to be in the court within a short period of time, combined with the language of the law, easy to understand, concise to the judge to clarify How to combine the legal language within a short period of time, easy to understand, concise and clear to the judge to explain the reasons to persuade the judge to adopt our point of view, but also for the lawyer's professional and trial skills of the test.

The first hearing of this case is scheduled for 2022 after the Spring Festival holiday, the time is urgent and heavy task, the lawyer from the client's warehouse to move back to the case more than ten years of engineering history materials, a total of six boxes, a comprehensive combing study, and to the plaintiff's evidence as a mirror, repeatedly deduction, to explore the best litigation strategy. In the whole volume of evidence, the lawyer screened the documents one by one, without sparing any clues in favor of the client, and finally found an important key document forgotten by the client to complete the evidence. After the first trial, the judge initiated the judicial appraisal, and the appraisal conclusion was unfavorable to the client. In this case, the lawyer quickly adjusted the litigation strategy, and suggested the client to file a counterclaim for the outstanding amount of the project, to comprehensively solve all the historical problems, to avoid the burden of litigation. In the second trial, the lawyer timely seize the evidence submitted by the other party's agent on the “benefit me” facts and loopholes, to make up for our chain of evidence, “defects”, to achieve mutual corroboration of evidence, the evidence chain of the state of closure, and ultimately prompted the judge to adopt our claims and Finally, the judge adopted our claims and opinions, rejected all the plaintiff's claims, and supported our counterclaims. The agency work in this case has maintained the client's reputation and business integrity, and was highly praised by the client, who said “a stone has fallen to the ground”.

It took two years to conclude this case, and we are grateful to the local court for upholding fairness and justice, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of private enterprises, and assisting in the high-quality development of the private economy. The firm will continue to provide professional legal services to escort the healthy development of enterprises.