The "loan" from the former mother-in-law

Basic situation

On February 25, 2024, Du Moumou, the former mother-in-law of Liu Moumou (the female party), suddenly filed a lawsuit against Zhang Mou and Liu Moumou, demanding that the two jointly borrow 677,750 yuan along with interest. The complaint did not clearly state the specific borrowing circumstances. At the same time, Du Moumou also carried out property preservation.

After taking on the case, through joint analysis by Lawyer Fan Guoliang of Jinyan Law Firm and the client, Du Moumou claimed that it had nothing to do with Liu Moumou. The 670,000 yuan claimed by Du Moumou should have been dealt with in the divorce lawsuit between Zhang Mou and Liu Moumou in 2023. Liu Moumou should not be the defendant. The only defendant was Du Moumou's son, Zhang Mou, and Du Moumou was fully aware of it. The so-called "670,000 yuan loan" can be divided into three parts. The first part is the commercial property loan in the High-tech Industrial Development Zone of Zhengzhou City. The total price of this shop is 1.74 million yuan. When Zhang and Liu divorced, Zhang claimed that this loan was a joint marital debt and presented a 420,000 yuan IOU (original) to the court, which was signed only by Zhang. For the shop, the court, based on the facts it had determined, awarded the ownership of the shop to Zhang Mou. The court only divided the portion jointly contributed by Zhang Mou and Liu Moumou. The 420,000 yuan loan should be a personal loan of Zhang Mou. The second is the housing loan in Erqi District, Zhengzhou City. On May 9, 2017, Zhang Mou and Liu Moumou registered their marriage. At the time of their marriage, Liu Moumou did not ask the man for a dowry, and the man's family did not hold a wedding ceremony with the woman. Du Moumou transferred 170,000 yuan to Zhang Kai on May 9th and 10th to purchase a wedding house and stated that it was a betrothal gift. When Zhang Mou and Liu Moumou divorced, Zhang Mou claimed that the sum of money was a loan. Liu Moumou, in order to have a smooth divorce, did not hesitate and acknowledged that 160,000 yuan of it was a loan, and then paid the money to Zhang Mou. The above two items have in fact been confirmed by effective judgments. The third is the remaining 80,000 yuan, of which 23,000 yuan was jointly given by Du Moumou to Zhang Mou and Liu Moumou to repay the monthly mortgage payment for the house in Jiefang District, Jiaozuo City. The rest was either a separate gift from Du Moumou to Zhang Mou or Zhang Mou's personal debt. During the divorce lawsuit, Zhang posted pictures of a car in the wechat family group, stating that the car payment was borrowed.

In addition, the evidence Du Moumou used in his lawsuit against Zhang Mou and Liu Moumou is consistent with the evidence in Zhang Mou and Liu Moumou's divorce lawsuit, and the evidence Zhang Mou used in the divorce lawsuit, namely the IOU, is all the original. Logically speaking, the IOU should be in the creditor's hands, not in Zhang's. However, in the two cases, Du Moumou and Zhang respectively presented the original evidence, which is abnormal in itself. More importantly, Zhang acknowledged all of Du Moumou's litigation requests as joint debts of the couple.

On March 25, 2024, the court held a hearing on this case. Our side claimed that there was no legal relationship of private lending between the two parties in this case and divided the involved funds into three parts to explain to the court one by one the source and destination of the funds.

At the same time, Liu Moumou's mother also filed a lawsuit against Zhang Mou in the same court, demanding that he repay the loan. The court intends to consolidate the cases for trial and mediate them together, but we firmly disagree. Later, as the case was transferred from the simplified procedure to the ordinary procedure, the plaintiff Du Moumou failed to pay the litigation fees after the "simplified to ordinary" conversion. Eventually, the court treated it as a withdrawal of the lawsuit.

Case analysis

From the perspective of the case itself, Du Moumou should have known that the involved funds had nothing to do with Liu Moumou, but still filed a lawsuit against him. Analyzing the reasons, one possible reason is that Liu Moumou's family conditions are relatively good, and it is possible that in order not to be entangled again, he might have compromised. When Liu Moumou and Zhang Mou agreed to divorce, Liu Moumou proposed to leave with nothing. Zhang Mou refused and demanded that Liu Moumou compensate him 100,000 yuan before they could divorce. Liu Moumou had no choice but to file for divorce through litigation. During the divorce proceedings, Liu Moumou also once gave up claiming some of his property rights. Eventually, after the division of the property between the two parties, Zhang Mou still had to pay Liu Moumou 260,000 yuan. Du Moumou might think that Liu Moumou's family is wealthy and doesn't care, and there is a possibility that he can gain some benefits through litigation. On the other hand, the low cost of breaking the law and the insufficient crackdown on false litigation by the court are also important factors in Du Moumou's lawsuit. During the trial of this case, Zhang fully acknowledged Du's litigation requests. Our side presented the effective judgment of Zhang and Liu to the court and stated the facts of the case. Meanwhile, during the trial of the case, Liu Moumou's mother filed a lawsuit against Zhang Mou in the same court, demanding that he repay the loan. After the trial of this case, the court also intended to mediate the cases of Du Moumou v. Zhang Mou and Liu Moumou, as well as the two private lending cases of Liu Moumou v. Zhang Mou, together. It did not delve into whether Du Moumou and Zhang Mou colluded or whether there was any false litigation. It only failed to mediate because our side did not agree. Especially after the court hearing, Du Moumou felt that there was no hope of winning the lawsuit and adopted the strategy of not paying the litigation fees after the "simplified to general" conversion, thus withdrawing the lawsuit. The cost of breaking the law was too low. From the perspective of the handling process of this case, the agent lawyer believes that the facts of the case must be based on the facts, and for some unreasonable demands, they must be resolutely uncompromised, so as to effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the parties involved.

Introduction to lawyers

Lawyer Fan Guoliang is a practicing lawyer at Jinyan Law Firm. Graduated from the Law Department of Zhengzhou University.

Mainly handle various litigation and arbitration cases such as civil and commercial cases, criminal defense, and administrative cases, and participate in the handling of non-litigation business such as the review of business concentration (anti-monopoly) and independent supervisors of creditor's rights.

Contact Information

Telephone: 18153078015

Email: 1053083482@qq.com