Residents of a sub-district reported that a neighbourhood committee officer had borrowed money from them over several years for purported family expenses and never repaid it. Twenty residents, many of them over eighty and living on pensions, had lent sums totalling several hundred thousand yuan in cash and by transfer.

Approach

The firm was acting as legal adviser to the sub-district office, took the case on a public-interest basis, and acted for the twenty claimants.

Outcome

The court found the loans established on the evidence of transfers, receipts and witness testimony, and ordered repayment. The case is a reminder that documentary discipline matters even — and especially — in lending between acquaintances.