Case summary

    The case involved a dispute over the sale and purchase of four commercial houses which worth tens of millions of yuan. The buyer sued for the transfer of the house. The original trial was rejected and took effect. Therefore, the buyer faced the dilemma of moving out of the residential house. The four houses involved two cases. Among them, Lu Mou sued for the transfer of the house and lost the case in the first and second instances. The court ordered the rejection of Lu’s request for the transfer of the underlying house on the grounds that the house had been sold to other parties and transferred. Lawyer Sun Lijun, a senior partner of the firm, applied for a retrial, and the Shanghai High Court ruled and ordered the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People’s Court to retrial. In the end, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court issued an order to revoke the original judgment of the first and second instances, and ordered the transfer of the disputed house to the buyer.

    At the same time, Mr. Sun represented Wang in a transfer case of the same type, and finally won the lawsuit. In the end, the clients won the lawsuit in both cases, and not having to move their family out from the house where they had lived for many years. The work of the lawyer saved the two large families from displacement.
 

Case Introduction

Lu and Wang signed four Shanghai Commercial Housing Pre-sale Contracts (hereinafter referred to as “Pre-sale Contracts”) with Shanghai Qiangmou Economic Investment Company in 2002 and paid the contract price. However, they learned that the seller, the Shanghai Qiangmou Economic Investment Ccompany was only a sales agency; that the underlying houses had been transferred by the original developer Shanghai Xinmou Real Estate Development Company (hereinafter referred to as “Xinmou Company”) to a Shanghai Branch of Shanghai Bank Co., Ltd. (Hereinafter referred to as “the Shanghai Bank”), and that they were further transferred to Shanghai Mouan Urban Construction Investment Co., Ltd. (Hereinafter referred to as “Mouan Urban Construction”). Therefore, the performance of the pre-sale contracts was hindered. The final owner of the housing property rights registration right, An Chengjian, did not agree to perform the transfer obligation, believing that he had no contractual relationship with Lu or Wang. In the first instance, Lu’s request for the transfer of the underlying house was rejected for the following reasons: MouAn Urban Construction had purchased the house in good faith and fulfilled its obligations, and the house in dispute had already been transferred. Therefore, the pre-sale contract could not be fulfilled, and Mouan Urban Construction had no agreement to buying or selling with either Lu or Wang. After a trial, the court of second instance still agreed with the court of first instance, and maintained the original judgment.

    Lawyer Sun Lijun represented Lu in applying to the Shanghai Higher People’s Court for a retrial, arguing that Mouan Urban Construction knew or should have known the fact that Lu had signed a pre-sale contract for the purchase of the house and paid the money. However, Mouan Urban Construction still argued that it has never reached a purchase agreement with Lu, and that it could not be assumed that the two parties have reached an agreement, believing that it has no obligation to cooperate with the transfer of the house and that it was only obliged to return the money received.

    After the hearing and trial by the Shanghai Higher People’s Court, a retrial of the case was ordered.

    In the end, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court recognized the lawyer’s point of view and confirmed that Qiangmou Company had the right to sell the house as an agent and that Mouan Urban Construction knew or should have known that there was a default. At the same time, Mouan Urban Construction did not have evidence to prove that it raised objections to Lu and Wang’s residence in the house, etc. Finally, the court ordered Mouan Urban Construction to transfer four houses (in the two case) to Lu and Wang.

    So far, the four houses in dispute have gone through the transfer procedures, and the case has been successfully completed.