In recent days, the judgments rendered by Haikou Maritime Court in 14 cases concerning disputes over fishery administrative compensation have been duly affirmed by the Higher People’s Court of the province. The disputes which have lasted for as long as five years are finally settled.

In October 2012, the government of Xiuying District decided to recover possession of the 1,899 mou state-owned sea areas in Yuehai Railway Nangang Dock, Xinhai Village Committee of Xixiu Town for the project of cargo-passenger ro-ro terminal in Xinhai Port. Among the 300 some fishermen getting administrative compensation for this reason, 14 brought actions before Haikou Maritime Court in January 2019 against the government of Xiuying District on the grounds of insufficient compensation, requesting the court to order the defendant to reassess the plaintiffs’ fishing boats, anchor positions and floating positions and sign agreements on repurchase compensation.

Understanding the cause of the cases

The project concerned is a major construction project in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan of the province, and a key project of Haikou City in its efforts to build a regional shipping and logistics centre oriented towards Southeast Asia, connecting Beibu Gulf, and backed by the hinterland of South China. In the negotiations on the agreements on repurchase compensation, the 14 fishermen had been withholding their consent as they considered the compensation insufficient. The parties involved in the cases disagreed significantly and the disputes lasted for up to five years. Other than the 14 fishermen who had brought actions, over 20 more were standing on the fence about whether to suit the government. The reasonableness of the fishery administrative compensation and the justice of the first-instance judgments not only had a direct effect on the 14 fishermen’s immediate interest, but also influenced the other fishermen’s attitude and interest. Any improper handling of the cases would give rise to group petitions.

Making careful preparations for the trial

In trying the cases, our staff patiently listened to the fishermen’s voices, made careful preparations for the trial, and paid much attention to both social and legal impacts of the cases: first, the handling judge found that the plaintiffs’ claims were not specific and therefore repeatedly analysed the advantages and disadvantages for the plaintiffs, guiding them to propose specific amounts of compensation in order to solve the disputes at one go; secondly, a pre-trial meeting was held to allow both parties to produce and cross-examine evidence and urge the parties to settle their disputes and disagreements in a peaceful way. The collegial bench carefully analysed the plaintiff’s opinions and patiently answered the fishermen’s questions, treating the trial process as an opportunity to promote legal awareness; and thirdly, they carefully checked relevant documents, and listed and verified the particulars of the fishing boats owned by the 14 fishermen to avoid any error.

Rendering judgments in court

On the morning of the day of trial, after considering the evidence produced by both parties and the trial circumstances, the collegial bench found that the issue of the cases was the specific amounts to be paid by the defendant to the plaintiffs as repurchase compensation. In order to practically solve the disputes, the collegial bench specified in the judgments the amounts of compensation available to the fishermen and ordered the defendant at court to paid the repurchase compensation to the fishermen in a lump sum within a specific time limit. This fundamentally settled the disputes and reduced the plaintiffs’ costs of protecting their rights. The court of second instance duly affirmed the first-instance judgments, finding them correct based on clear finding of facts and proper application of law. The first-instance judgments were also recognized by the losing party. The agent ad litem of the defendant approved of the trial practice of Haikou Maritime Court on his WeChat Moments.