Do legal documents have to be fingerprinted? Do the legal documents submitted by the demolition households to the administrative agencies have to be fingerprinted? Is it valid if there is only a personal signature without fingerprints? Can an administrative agency refuse to respond on the basis that a legal document is not fingerprinted?
Key Points
For personal legal documents, fingerprints are not a necessary condition, the signature itself is valid. The administrative agency responsible for responding refuses to respond on the grounds that the legal document is only signed and not fingerprinted, which is an illegal act of administrative inaction.
Case Index
Administrative Reconsideration Decision of the People’s Government of Si County, Suzhou City, Anhui Province [2015]XX
Facts of a legal case
Applicants: Meng and four others.
Respondent: Si County Land and Resources Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the County Land and Resources Bureau)
Agents: Wang Bingfeng and Cai Xiaoyi of Beijing Jingping Law Firm.
Mr. Meng and four other people all own residential houses in a community in Sicheng Town, Sixian County, Suzhou City, Anhui Province. They are facing demolition due to the implementation of the local old city reconstruction project. Because the compensation and resettlement conditions given by the demolition party were too low, the two parties failed to reach an agreement on demolition compensation. In order to protect their legitimate rights and interests, Mr. Meng and four others decided to resolve the demolition dispute through legal channels. After being introduced by someone, Mr. Meng and four other people finally hired a team of Beijing Jingping demolition lawyers to represent them in safeguarding their rights. After the Jingping Brigade intervened in the case, it assigned and handled the cases of Mr. Meng and four others, and was responsible for handling the rights protection matters for their house demolition.
After research and analysis of the case, Jingping demolition lawyers determined that this case belongs to expropriation and demolition on collective land. This project is called urban renewal. In fact, the developers built commercial housing without producing any expropriation documents. In order to further ascertain the facts of the case, Jingping demolition lawyers first launched a series of legal investigations into the project’s land acquisition procedures. The process of this legal investigation was not smooth sailing. Some government agencies ignored the legal investigation documents after receiving them, including the county Land and Resources Bureau. In response to the inaction of the County Land and Resources Bureau, Mr. Jingping drafted an "Application for Administrative Reconsideration", instructing Mr. Meng and four others to send the County Land and Resources Bureau to the county government for reconsideration.
Listen
During the administrative review of this case, the County Land and Resources Bureau responded that the application form sent to the County Land and Resources Bureau by Mr. Meng and four others only had signatures and no fingerprints, so the application could not be confirmed authenticity and therefore cannot be answered.
The People's Government of Sixian County believes that Mr. Meng and four other people own houses in a community in Sicheng Town, and the relevant departments are now planning to carry out project construction on the land in this area. In order to verify the legality of construction by relevant departments, Mr. Meng and four others had the right to inquire about the land acquisition documents of the relevant plots according to relevant regulations, but the County Land and Resources Bureau did not make them public within the legal period. In the end, the Si County People's Government issued the Si Fu Review [2015] No. XX Administrative Review Decision, ordering the County Land and Resources Bureau to disclose relevant land acquisition documents to Mr. Meng and four other people within a time limit.
Comments from Demolition Lawyers
Regarding the signature or fingerprinting of personal legal documents, in the civil field, the "Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Contract Law of the People's Republic of China" (II) )" Article 5 stipulates: If the parties conclude a contract in the form of a contract, they shall sign or seal it. If a party puts his or her fingerprint on a contract, the people's court shall determine that it has the same legal effect as a signature or seal. ? In the field of litigation, Article 265 of the "Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on the Application of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China" stipulates: If the plaintiff files an oral complaint, the People's Court shall accurately record the name, gender, work unit, and address of the parties involved , contact information, litigation claims, facts and reasons and other basic information, which will be signed or sealed by the plaintiff after verification. Receipts shall be issued for the evidentiary materials submitted by the parties. ? It can be seen that fingerprints are not listed as necessary conditions in personal legal documents. In fact, the signature itself is valid.
Therefore, in the administrative field, if the administrative agency responsible for responding refuses to respond on the grounds that legal documents are only signed and not fingerprinted, it is an illegal act of administrative inaction.
In this case, the illegality of the county Land and Resources Bureau's inaction is very obvious, and in order to evade legal responsibility, it can be said that they only signed the relevant legal documents without fingerprints, which made people dumbfounded, and the review agency even dismissed it. . But in reality, many demolished households will also mention this problem. Judging from the results of this case, Mr. Jingping can definitely tell you that fingerprinting personal legal documents is not a necessary condition, and the signature itself is valid.
Legal investigation is often the first step in rights protection during demolition, but it also faces various obstacles; only by breaking through the obstacles and successfully obtaining the required information can a solid foundation be laid for rights protection actions.