Italian Born Chinese

[ This is part of a multi-post series about our little legal problem in Shanghai. To read previous installments go here
]

Monday morning, 2010/01/04, after talking to Lawyer Tang, Lawyer Sui called me saying that Li et al agreed to paying a “compensation” in the amount of RMB3.000. I was delighted, even though they said that that would include the utility bills. At this point, I just wanted to be free of troubles and have the matter settled. I needed and wanted to focus on my work and my family. I felt bad for my kids and students, as I couldn’t concentrate on them or anything at all.

I told Lawyer Sui that I would settle and sign it as long as they detailed in the agreement what the total amount of RMB3.000 was for. I wanted them to list the admin fee and the utility bills that Li owed as well as the RMB100 for dismantling the lock which I had an invoice for. As they insisted that they definitely would deny everything about the keys, I agreed not to charge them (but still detail) an extra RMB100 for dismantling the lock so that the settlement could move forward.

Lawyer Sui later told me that they would not detail the admin fee, utility bills, and definitely not the expense for the lock. I asked him to forward Lawyer Tang’s proposal to me so that I could talk it over with my dad over night before we decided on anything. I also asked him to draft our version of the settlement and have it e-mailed to me.

Monday evening, I received a letter dated 2010/01/03 from Li which contradicted Lawyer Tang’s proposal. Dad and I decided that he would go out and meet with Lawyer Sui the next day, as well as to sign a contract with Lawyer Sui and pay for his legal services. In the meantime, I had been researching online about PuHui Law Firm that Lawyer Tang said he represented.

Tuesday afternoon, 2010/01/05, Dad went to JunDu Law Firm where Lawyer Sui worked at. He also met with Lawyer Sun, Sui’s colleague, who took a deep interest into our case. It turned out that she graduated from the same university that Dad is studying at right now. Dad spent so many hours there. While he was there, I called him to tell him that I had been calling PuHui Law Firm’s numbers for 2 days now and no calls were ever picked up and that according to the telecom company, PuHui Law Firm was not registered, their phone numbers were not registered, and their address was also not registered.

Can you imagine how I felt about everything so far? What country and what world was I in?!!!!!

That night, I waited and waited for my dad to return. He came home late with our version of the settlement/agreement. I read over the documents that included briefly what happened on 2010/01/01 as well as a detailed break-down of the total amount of money to be deducted from the remaining RMB20.000. Damages/penalty fees according to the contract calculated out to be RMB760 per day. The lawyers and my dad decided to count 4 days. RMB760 x 4 =3.040

It was:
(a) RMB366 admin fee
(b) RMB270 utilities
(c) RMB100 lock (which I agreed to discount)
(d) RMB2.304 damages/penalty fees (we insisted on using this term according to what it is in the apartment purchase contract)
(e) RMB1.500 legal expenses (Lawyers Sun advised Dad to deduct a lot more than RMB1500 for this category; I wasn’t sure about this but trusting Dad and the lawyers, I left it as it was on the document Dad brought home late in the night)
(a)+(b)+(d)+(e)= RMB4.440 (RMB100 for dismantling the lock was not counted)
RMB20.000 – 4.440= RMB15.560
*Included on the document – Li may exchange receipts/invoices of items (a) and (b) for money from me.

I signed the document and Dad planned to wire the RMB15.560 to Li the next day. That night, we both realized that they never gave us any of their contacts. All the contact numbers on the apartment purchase contract were HaoK Property Agency’s numbers. There was no return address on the envelope that Li used to send us her letter dated 2010/01/03. We decided that we would wire the money into Li’s bank account anyway and mail all the documents to her lawyer, Lawyer Tang.

I was so relieved by the prospect and possibility of being able to finalize the case. Little did we know that things were still not going to be simple or easily understood.