(CRIENGLISH.com)
Updated: 2008-03-31 16:10

According to Article 33 of China's Law on Inheritance, as an inheritor, one should clear off the taxes and debts that should be paid by the deceased and the limit of the liquidation is set against the real value of the legacy. But the four defendants argued that the overdraft of the credit card occurred after Chen Ze had died and therefore should not be taken as his debt. Then how will the court make its verdict?

The case was heard by the People's Court of Xuhui District of Shanghai on October 30th, 2007. Wang Yiwei the judge explained their verdict.

"Seen from the existing evidence, the overdraft took place after Chen Ze had died. There are two possibilities. One is he authorized someone to use it by giving the person the password. The other is someone used the card after picking it up or stealing it. In both cases, Chen Ze was concerned."

The court ruled that Chen Ze, as the card holder, has the obligation to properly keep the credit card and the password. The act that someone else took the card and conducted transactions after his death can be affirmed as an act that had been authorized by Chen Ze when he was alive. The consequences should be shouldered by Chen Ze and handled as his debt. As his heirs at law, the four defendants should take on this debt. They were demanded to pay back Fu Pengwei some 5,800 yuan, or 770 US dollars, for the overdraft and the interests.

The lawsuit came to an end and Fu Pengwei finally had his mind set at rest. Though it was the family of Chen Ze who took on the liability for liquidating the overdraft, Fu Pengwei did not have an easy time during the two lawsuits. In fact, according to the General Principles of China's Civil Law, the guarantor is responsible to supervise and ensure the warrantee to fulfill his or her obligations. If the warrantee didn't or was unable to fulfill his or her obligations, it would be upon the guarantor to do so. Had Chen Ze not left any asset, then Fu Pengwei, as his guarantor, had to settle the overdraft.

With that, we end this week's . If you have any comments and suggestions, don't hesitate to write to us, either by email or post. Our address is crieng@crifm.com. Alternatively, you can send a letter to: English Service, China Radio International, Beijing, China. The postal code is 100040. For program producer Wang Lei, I am Wu Jia. Thank you for listening. Until next week, goodbye.

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