Recently, Mr. Cai Kangmiao and Mr. Zhang Yu, a trainee lawyer, reached a civil mediation in an inheritance case, in which the client successfully obtained the distribution of four sets of house discounts, funeral expenses, pension and compensation for demolition and relocation, and drew a successful conclusion to the property dispute that had lasted for more than thirty years.

First, prudent assessment, politely rejected twice

Finally, because of the “three Gu” sincerity formally entrusted

This case is a “married woman” inheritance case, the client for the inheritance of his father's estate, in April 2024 from abroad to the law firm, before and after three times, hoping to entrust Cai Kangmiao lawyers to represent this case. At the time of meeting, the client had almost no written materials in hand, and could only rely on his memory to state the situation, and the case information was almost in a “blank” state, and he didn't even know his father's unit and residential address at the time of his death. In the face of the client's first two sincere commission, taking into account the lack of clues in this case, and ultimately may not be able to share the reality of the risk, CaiKangMiao lawyers team after careful assessment, did not accept the commission. Until the party's third cross-provincial visit, its firm will and persistent beliefs impressed the lawyer, Cai Kangmiao lawyers finally decided to undertake this case, and immediately start a comprehensive evidence collection and investigation work. But the whole case process, can be described as a series of twists and turns.

Second, check the file to determine the heritage jurisdiction

Multi-dimensional evidence to crack the case

The breakthrough in this case is to verify the identity of the heirs. The party only based on memory to provide clues, said his father may be in “a county agricultural start-up” retired. However, due to the county has long been withdrawn from the county to the district, and the original agricultural start in the successive institutional reforms in the functional adjustment, belonging to the unknown, to accurately lock the heir of the original work unit difficulties. To this end, we launched a systematic investigation, dozens of phone calls before and after, in turn, contacted a district agriculture and rural areas, street offices, Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, the Government Office, the Organization Department and the Bureau of Older Cadres and other departments, and ultimately determined that his retirement unit is now taken over by the Finance Bureau. After obtaining this key information, we immediately went to the District Finance Bureau archives to apply for access to the heir “personnel file”, successfully proved that “my father is my father” of the kinship; on the estate, the client provided the heir's approximate location of the estate (real estate), the lawyer can only feel the stones across the river, to the suspected inheritance of the House location to take photos to obtain evidence, and even searching the client to find ancient coins as evidence to help build a case, according to the jurisdiction of the inheritance case, the main estate location of the court refused to file a case, the reason is that we think we can not prove that the court is the location of the main inheritance, but only to go to the place of residence at the time of the decedent's death. According to the client's statement at that time, they also did not know his father's former place of residence, we applied to several police stations for access to household registration information, and only finally succeeded in finding the decedent's “Certificate of Cancellation of Household Registration” to prove his former domicile address, and the process of obtaining the cremation certificate, another key piece of evidence, was equally tortuous. Since only one relative held the death certificate after the death of the decedent, the other children were unable to verify the exact time of death, and the inheritance process was at a stalemate. For this reason, we went to the funeral department with a lawyer's license and a letter of introduction, and after communicating with the person in charge, he did not agree to mark the time of death. After repeated explanations and struggle, the person in charge finally agreed to clearly set out the time of death in the certificate, for the subsequent inheritance program to clear the key obstacles, before the domicile of the court successfully filed!

Third, digging deep clues, strong evidence:

Uncover the full picture of the hidden property

Although the case is on, the estate is still to be resolved, the case is assigned to the judge, we immediately apply to investigate and obtain evidence, requesting to go to the city and district real estate registration center to retrieve the property under the name of the heir, to go to the unit of his life to retrieve the funeral expenses and pensions issued and received, go to a number of banks to inquire about the deposits under the name of the heir. Finally persuaded the court to issue a transfer order, but did not find the property! But the other side to show that the house has been rebuilt and took the initiative to submit the ownership of the property certificate, accidentally confirmed our claim. We didn't stop there, but assumed, based on the address of the other party's residence, that the decedent's old home might have been demolished and relocated. By searching for similar judgments, we targeted the corresponding housing acquisition and compensation center, with an investigation order to access the demolition data, and found that the eldest son of the decedent had signed the demolition agreement on his behalf. Accordingly, we obtained the Collective Land Construction Land Use Certificate and further accessed the demolition and relocation agreement. However, the agreement did not contain specific information on the relocation house. The lawyers continued to communicate repeatedly with the relevant departments, and finally obtained the Settlement Statement of the Relocation House, which clarified the location of the 260-square-meter resettlement house. At the same time, we went to the original unit of the decedent and verified the key information on funeral expenses and pension. While gradually determining the scope of the property, the team synchronized with relevant supporting documents to retrieve the historical bank flows of the decedent from several banks, laying the foundation for a comprehensive determination of the scope of the estate.

Looking back on this case, Cai Kangmiao's team submitted a total of 14 investigation applications to the court, and the court issued seven investigation orders in four installments. Each investigation order is like a key, in the demolition and resettlement files and unit archives in the labyrinth of prudent exploration: from the housing acquisition and compensation center archives in the yellowing of the demolition and relocation agreement, to the unit of the Personnel Section of the dusty personnel files; from the area used to check the resettlement of the surveying and mapping drawings, to the tracing of the pension issued by the bank to the direction of the flow of water ...... With a key piece of evidence gradually put in place, the case of the veins finally penetrate the fog, and now stand in the chain of evidence to build the completion of the time node to look back, the seven investigation order is not only a procedural document, more as the truth of the facts of the seven pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. When the last investigation order corresponding to the information filed into the file, those who have been obscured by the time the facts of the case one by one shadow. Perhaps as the contractor judge said, this is the “last” investigation order, but for us, the significance of each investigation to the meaning of, is to let the fairness is rooted in the details, so that justice is not buried in the fog of evidence.

Fourth, break the judgment dilemma:

Mediation to settle the case, set points to stop the dispute

In view of the first trial of the two sides can not mediate, the court of first instance, although the judgment of the client can inherit the share of the house, but it is difficult to enjoy the substantive rights and interests of the house, CaiKangMiao team of lawyers in the second stage of the second trial to promote mediation, and ultimately the second trial to facilitate the parties to obtain all the real estate in a timely manner, funeral expenses, pensions, and demolition and relocation of compensation for the estate of discounted funds, fundamentally avoiding the follow-up of the possible lengthy litigation and implementation of the predicament, to help the client say goodbye to It helped the client to say goodbye to the tormented life accompanied by complaints and lawsuits, and truly realized “the case is closed, the matter is settled, and the people are in peace”.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)