Fake evidence, fabricated facts, malicious collusion... For the purpose of evading purchase restrictions and sales restrictions in the property market, false house sale lawsuits occur from time to time. Recently, the Supreme People's Court provided a "ruler" for identifying false lawsuits and issued the "Opinions on In-depth Rectification of False Litigations" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), which clearly stated that the validity of contracts must be strictly reviewed to avoid debts, evasion, and fraud. If the house purchase and sale contract relationship is fabricated to file a lawsuit for illegal purposes such as executing, obtaining illegal demolition benefits, evading macro-control policies, etc., the contract shall be deemed invalid.

12,300 false lawsuits were investigated and dealt with in 4 years

In order to avoid enforcement of the house under Feng’s name, his former spouse Gao filed a false divorce agreement with the People’s Court to object to the execution . During the trial, the court found that the divorce agreement’s stipulations on property division were inconsistent with the divorce agreement filed by both parties at the Marriage Registration Office of the Civil Affairs Bureau. This is one of the 10 typical cases of false litigation announced by the Supreme People's Court not long ago.

Zheng Xuelin, president of the First Civil Trial Division of the Supreme People’s Court, told a reporter from China Consumer News that the Criminal Law Amendment (9), which came into effect in November 2015, added the crime of false litigation. Since then, the number of false prosecution criminal cases concluded by the People's Court every year, the number of convictions, and the number of people sentenced to severe imprisonment of more than 5 years have been increasing year by year. From 2017 to 2020, courts nationwide investigated and dealt with 12,300 false litigation cases. Although the intensity of investigation and punishment continues to increase, because false lawsuits are highly concealed and present new characteristics, how to identify and identify them is crucial.

In this regard, the "Opinions" stipulates which situations are false litigation and provides a "ruler" for identifying false litigation; it summarizes eight major characteristics of false litigation and provides a guide for identifying false litigation; it lists ten This category of common false lawsuits has been identified, and key points have been set for the rectification of false lawsuits; a mechanism for rectifying false lawsuits that runs through the entire process of case filing, trial, and execution has been established.

The "Opinions" pointed out that individuals, alone or in malicious collusion with others, resort to forging evidence, making false statements and other means to fabricate basic facts in civil cases, fabricate civil disputes, and file civil lawsuits in people's courts, harming national interests and society. Any violation of public interests or the legitimate rights and interests of others or obstruction of judicial order constitutes a false lawsuit. Applying to the People's Court to enforce arbitration awards, mediation documents and notarized creditor's rights documents based on fabricated facts, and using fabricated facts to raise objections to the subject of execution or apply to participate in the distribution of enforcement property during the civil enforcement process are also false lawsuits.

Focus on key areas such as house sales

Private lending disputes, enforcement objections, labor disputes, divorce and estate disputes, property disputes against one party in divorce cases, corporate bankruptcy disputes, companies Separation (merger) disputes, trademark disputes involving well-known trademarks, disputes over divorce, property division, inheritance, and house sales contracts involving demolition, sales contracts, and debt-for-deposit disputes involving macro-control policies such as house purchase restrictions and motor vehicle allocation index regulation. All types of disputes are prone to false litigation. In this regard, the "Opinions" require focusing on key areas and increasing rectification efforts.

Yan Yuejin, research director of the Think Tank Center of E-House Research Institute, told a reporter from China Consumer News that in fact, in recent years, the phenomenon of evading housing purchase restrictions and sales restrictions through false lawsuits has increased. The properties under the names of some landlords cannot be sold due to the purchase and sale restrictions, and the buyers cannot purchase the properties because they are not qualified to purchase the property. This has led to the "grey area" of second-hand housing transactions. Some people use fictitious debt disputes and home buyers' lawsuits against landlords to bring such properties into the judicial auction process, thereby bypassing the restrictions on sales and purchase restrictions and realizing housing transactions. "Such practices obviously violate the requirements of the lawsuit, and also violate the spirit of 'housing is for living, not for speculation', and naturally must be strictly controlled." Yan Yuejin said, "Some intermediaries think they have found a way to circumvent the house purchase policy. , and then bring together buyers and sellers to complete transactions. However, in fact, such practices have violated the legal red line and will eventually face legal sanctions.

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Based on this phenomenon, in the real estate field, the "Opinions" make it clear that the validity of contracts must be strictly scrutinized, and fictitious contracts must be made for illegal purposes such as evading debts, evading execution, obtaining illegal demolition benefits, and circumventing macro-control policies. If a lawsuit is filed regarding a house purchase contract, the contract shall be deemed invalid; if the buyer fabricates his qualifications to purchase a house and participates in a judicial auction of property, the auction shall be deemed invalid; if the buyer fabricates his qualifications to purchase a house, causing the auction to be invalid, he shall bear liability for compensation according to law.

Exploring the establishment of a "blacklist" system

False litigation ignores the dignity of the law and affects the fairness of the court's judgment. The relevant parties should pay the corresponding price according to Article 9 of the "Criminal Law Amendment (9)". Article 35 stipulates: “Whoever files a civil lawsuit based on fabricated facts, obstructs judicial order or seriously infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of others shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance, and shall also or solely be fined; if the circumstances are serious, A term of imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and a fine. ”

Fu Yan, judge of the Chaoyang District Court in Beijing, told a reporter from China Consumer News that the parties involved must handle their civil rights and litigation rights based on the principle of good faith. This can be said to be against false litigation. Principle provisions. False litigation in a narrow sense refers to malicious collusion between parties and attempts to infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of others through litigation, mediation, etc. False litigation in a broad sense also includes situations such as unilaterally fabricating evidence and deliberately dragging the defendant into litigation. . Throughout trial practice, false litigation is more commonly seen as false litigation in a broad sense.

He Xiaorong, Vice President of the Supreme People’s Court, once publicly stated at a press conference of the State Council Information Office that in recent years, In response to the characteristics of false litigation in different periods, the Supreme People's Court has successively issued the "Emergency Notice on Strictly Examining Various False Litigations under Real Estate Control Policies", "Guiding Opinions on Preventing and Sanctioning False Litigation" and "Guidance on Further Strengthening the Punishment of False Litigation Crimes". Opinions", issued normative documents such as the Judicial Interpretation of the Civil Procedure Law, the Judicial Interpretation of Private Lending, and the Judicial Interpretation of the Handling of False Litigation Criminal Cases, to guide courts across the country to actively and orderly carry out the rectification of false litigation.

In order to further rectify. Regarding false litigation in key areas, the "Opinions" put forward three requirements for punishing criminal offenses involving false litigation: strictness in general, focus on crackdowns, and coordination between criminals and civilians, and the criminal liability of perpetrators of false litigation will be strictly investigated.

In addition, the "Opinions" also require people's courts at all levels to actively explore the establishment of a "blacklist" system for false lawsuits and establish a list of dishonest persons in false lawsuits to automatically identify information about false litigants during the "litigation, trial, and execution" stages. Disclose the list of false litigants to the public, and actively explore the credit penalty mechanism, strive to connect with the information database of credit reporting agencies, promote the construction of a social credit system, and increase the illegal costs of false litigants through credit penalties.

In the next step, the Supreme People's Court will also formulate a series of judicial interpretations and judicial policies to further tighten the cage of the system, reduce the space for false litigation, and achieve both the root cause and the root cause of false litigation.