23: What? Do you feel like laughing when I talk about the law?

Zhou Yun had already left the prison. When he questioned Sun Weitao just now, he had observed his condition and could basically determine that Sun Weitao was not lying.

As a seasoned criminal defense expert of many years, Zhou Yun had confidence in this area.

If the other party wasn't lying, then this case had a lot of potential.

Seeing that it was getting late, it was definitely not possible today. Zhou Yun returned to the hotel, preparing to go to the Railway Transportation Court first thing tomorrow morning to file an administrative lawsuit.

Administrative lawsuits, as the most unique type among several lawsuits, have been criticized by many people, both in the past and present, saying that they cannot be won at all, or even if they are won, they are useless.

This statement is actually very true, after all, it's a 'citizen suing an official'.

In the past, some local administrative organs simply ignored Court judgments.

And if they really ignored them, what could the Court do? Could they detain the legal representative of the administrative organ on the grounds of 'refusing to enforce judgments and rulings'?

Then you are purely unable to distinguish between the important and the unimportant. If you want to detain today, I don't even know what you want to do tomorrow.

Now, the situation has improved a bit, but only slightly.

However, the administrative lawsuit Zhou Yun is going to file this time is different. He is not asking the Court to order a certain administrative organ to re-issue an administrative act or anything, but merely to ask the Court to rule whether the administrative act of forced demolition is illegal!

There is room for maneuver here.

But there is still one problem, and that is, who is the defendant in your administrative lawsuit?

Many people will be curious, isn't this a very simple question? Who could have decided on the forced demolition? It must have been the County, so just sue the County.

If you really think that way, you will be directly rejected by the Court when you file the lawsuit, saying that your defendant is not qualified.

Administrative lawsuits have extremely strict regulations. The defendant must be the administrative organ that made the specific administrative act, and the specific target of your lawsuit must also be the corresponding specific administrative act.

It must be a complete match; if there's even a slight mismatch anywhere, the lawsuit will fail.

House expropriation and demolition involve many administrative acts and manyDelegated Behavior (delegated acts). You must look through these connections to find the specific responsible party.

Zhou Yun had already inquired clearly about the few people who forcibly took Sun Weitao away from the scene at that time.

They were several staff members from the Urban Management Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade, which is subordinate to the Dashan County Urban Management Department. Of course, they were all temporary workers, or what are commonly known as 'temps'.

No official staff would do this kind of work.

However, it also shows that the local government actually intended to carry out the demolition legally.

That's why they sought a Court ruling and had a subordinate department carry out the forced demolition, but the procedure had major problems.

If they hadn't intended to do it legally, it would have been a different game.

They would all be outsourced to specialized companies.

And this company would either have connections with relevant local leaders or with the developer who was about to develop this area.

Although Article 27 of the "Regulations on the Expropriation of Houses on State-Owned Land and Compensation" prohibits construction units from participating in demolition, meaning it prohibits real estate development companies from participating in demolition activities.

But regulations are regulations, and it's not the first time developers have participated in forced demolitions.

The reason is simple: the developer has already bought the land, but as long as the demolition isn't completed for a single day, construction cannot begin for that day, and it's all wasted money.

In that situation, if you were to sue, you would first have to find this company.

Dashan County wanted to carry out the forced demolition legally, which is why Sun Weitao was charged with the crime of obstructing official duties.

Although they were temporary workers of the city management, at that moment, the temporary workers represented the relevant departments.

Of course, if you hit an auxiliary police officer who is assisting in law enforcement, then that's the crime of obstructing official duties...

So, does that mean you should sue the Urban Management Brigade?

Of course not. The Urban Management Department only cooperates with the work. You can understand it as the housing expropriation department behind it entrusting the on-site demolition work to the Urban Management Department for execution.

If you sue the Urban Management Department, it will still be rejected.

At that time, there were certainly more than just city management personnel on site; people from other departments would also be present, and even the Public Security Bureau might have been there.

And none of these units can be defendants.

As for the true defendant, Zhou Yun is already investigating. What can serve as direct evidence to prevent the other party from denying it? That would be the ruling issued by the Court at that time.

There must be an applicant unit on the Court's ruling! This is a must!

Because you can think of the Court as a spinning top. A spinning top won't spin on its own; someone has to whip it to make it spin.

It cannot issue a ruling out of thin air on its own.

And this unit that applied for compulsory enforcement is the true defendant that made the administrative act!

This information is not easy to find, mainly because two years have passed, and Zhou Yun is not sure whether the local Court has deleted those announcements.

Rulings of this type are generally required to be announced on the official website.

All the way back to the hotel, Zhou Yun started to search again. Of course, he also had a backup plan: if he really couldn't find it here, he would have Sun Jianshe go to the local Court with his ID card to apply for retrieval.

Such relevant personnel can apply for retrieval.

Fortunately, by evening, Zhou Yun found it; the Court had not deleted it.

The ruling clearly stated that the applicant was the Dashan County House Expropriation Management Office.

This is another interesting point. Generally, various places will set up some specialized offices based on specific circumstances, like this one, which we all call the 'Demolition Office'.

Before 2018, it was very difficult to deal with because the defendant had to be a specific administrative organ.

And this kind of internal office is clearly not an administrative organ, so it cannot be a defendant.

This caused a lot of trouble, equivalent to exploiting a legal loophole through this method.

In 2018, the Supreme Peoples Court issued the "Interpretation on the Application of the Administrative Procedure Law."

Article 25 of this "Interpretation" stipulates:

If the expropriated person is dissatisfied with an administrative act made by the house expropriation department designated by the municipal or county-level People's Government during the process of organizing and implementing house expropriation and compensation work, and files a lawsuit, the house expropriation department shall be the defendant.

It was only here that it was completely fixed that the house expropriation department could become a defendant.

Having determined the defendant, Zhou Yun began to write the complaint and list the evidence.

The night passed quickly, and early the next morning, Zhou Yun left with his bag and headed straight for the Railway Transportation Court.

Upon arrival, he still had to take a number in the case filing hall.

However, Zhou Yun quickly noticed that although this place managed administrative lawsuits for more than a dozen counties under Ning City, there were almost no people at the windows.

It seems that the administrative lawsuit work in Ning City is still not doing very well.

Because there was no one in front, the number was called quickly after he took it, and Zhou Yun went to the window.

The staff inside reminded him, "Hello, this window only accepts administrative lawsuits..."

Zhou Yun smiled upon hearing this and said, "This is an administrative lawsuit. Here is the complaint, evidence, and my identification..."

As he spoke, Zhou Yun handed over the materials.

The staff member took the materials, looked at them, and said, "You're suing the Dashan County House Expropriation Office?"

Zhou Yun nodded.

The staff member paused and then said, "This administrative act happened two years ago, right? You're filing a lawsuit now? The statute of limitations has long passed."

"Take it back. We can't accept this."

After speaking, the staff member turned away, not intending to say anything more.

Zhou Yun took a deep breath. Although he knew administrative lawsuits were difficult, the situation in Ning City was still a bit unexpected.

But it doesn't matter, as long as problems are solved!

"Comrade, do you mean that if the six-month statute of limitations has passed, you cannot accept it?"

The staff member inside turned around, a hint of impatience on his face: "Yes, is what I said unclear? You're even a lawyer, you..."

However, the staff member was interrupted by Zhou Yun before he could finish speaking.

"Article 46 of the Administrative Procedure Law clearly stipulates that if a lawsuit concerning immovable property is filed more than twenty years after the administrative act was made, or in other cases, more than five years after the administrative act was made, the People's Court shall not accept it."

"Now, only two years have passed. Why do you say you won't accept it?"

"Or do your Courts have their own regulations? Or do you find it amusing when I mention this law?"

Zhou Yun stared at the other party, speaking with extreme seriousness.

When his words fell, the scene immediately fell silent.