Postal enterprises should make reasonable compensa

Postal enterprises should reasonably compensate for the loss of mail

gist of the judgment

postal enterprises should not apply the postal law to compensate customers for the loss of customers' mail, but should apply the general principles of civil law and contract law to make reasonable compensation

facts of the case

on February 22, 2005, the plaintiff Jiangsu Huai'an Rongda Communication Co., Ltd. mailed 22 parts to Zhejiang Hangzhou Dongfang communication Sales Service Co., Ltd. in the express delivery company affiliated to Huai'an post office. The company has not received the mail according to the different products. The defendant has also confirmed the loss of the mail, but has not compensated the plaintiff. The plaintiff sued and asked the defendant to compensate for its loss of 31910 yuan and bear the litigation costs of this case. The defendant argued that the plaintiff's claim for compensation of 31910 yuan lacked factual and legal basis: 1 The plaintiff cannot prove the value of the mail; 2. This case is a postal contract dispute, and the postal law should be applied, so the plaintiff can only be compensated twice the postage according to the provisions of the domestic mail processing rules

ruling

on September 29, 2005, the people's Court of Qinghe District, Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province, in accordance with Article 106, paragraph 2, of the general principles of the civil law, for more information about the latest meeting of this year, please contact: paragraph, and paragraph 2, Article 62 of the contract law. The judgment: the defendant shall compensate the plaintiff for the loss of 23646.81 yuan within 10 days after this judgment takes effect. After the first instance judgment, Huai'an post office refused to accept and appealed. Huai'an intermediate people's court ruled that the appeal was rejected and the original judgment was upheld

comment and analysis

the focus of this case is whether postal enterprises should apply the postal law for limited compensation or the civil law for reasonable compensation for the loss of customer mail

1. Postal law is a special law that administrative law does not belong to civil law. The postal law is a law that determines the rights and obligations of postal enterprises. Article 2 of the postal law stipulates that the postal administrative organ is the law enforcement organ of the law. The law and its implementation rules stipulate that if a postal enterprise violates the law, the postal administrative organ, the administrative organ for Industry and commerce, and the public security organ may impose administrative penalties on it in accordance with the relevant provisions of the law. That is to say, the postal law is also the legal basis for the state administrative organs to make specific administrative acts, so the postal law belongs to the scope of administrative law. In this case, the plaintiff delivered the mail to the defendant and paid the postage to the defendant; The defendant received the plaintiff's mail and postage, and was responsible for mailing the mail to the customer designated by the plaintiff. Therefore, the two parties have formed a postal service contract relationship. The legal status of the subjects of both parties is also equal. Therefore, the dispute between the plaintiff and the defendant in this case is a dispute between equal subjects over property issues, which belongs to the category of civil cases. Since it is a civil case, it is natural to apply the civil law to adjudicate. Contract law is one of the basic civil laws of our country, a special law of the general principles of civil law, and the parent law of other laws and regulations related to contracts. It is a law that regulates the contractual relationship between equal subjects, and has universal applicability. Therefore, the court of first instance made a judgment according to this law. Administrative law is the basis for administrative organs to make specific administrative acts, and it is also the basis for people's courts to examine whether the specific administrative acts made by administrative organs are legal. In general, it is not the legal basis for people's courts to make civil substantive judgments, but it does not mean that administrative law has no role in civil cases. In civil cases, administrative law has the following functions: ① it can be used as a basis to determine whether the claims of the parties are legitimate. For example, in the case of house ownership confirmation, the plaintiff claimed that the house he built belonged to him, but he could not provide the right to use the land of the house in dispute. The people's court could determine that his claim was illegal according to the provisions of the land law, and thus could reject his claim. ② It can be used as a basis to determine whether the behavior of the parties has fault. For example, in medical dispute cases, if the medical party performs surgery on the patient without the consent of the patient, the people's court can determine that the medical party's behavior is at fault in accordance with the provisions of the regulations on the handling of medical accidents. ③ It can be used as the basis for determining whether the contract is valid. If a contract is concluded by a person without construction qualification to undertake a construction project, the people's Court of justice can confirm that the contract is invalid in accordance with the provisions of the construction law. ④ Under special circumstances, it can be used as the basis for determining the amount of compensation. For example, in medical dispute cases, if the medical party has caused a medical accident, the people's court can decide the amount of compensation to the patient in accordance with the regulations on the handling of medical accidents. For another example, in the demolition case, the people's court can also decide the amount of compensation that the demolisher pays to the demolished person according to the regulations on demolition

2. The principle of limited compensation in Postal Law is contrary to the principle of reasonable compensation in civil law. Article 33 of the postal law stipulates that postal enterprises shall compensate or take remedial measures in accordance with the measures prescribed by the competent department of postal services under the State Council for the loss, damage and lack of evidentiary mail, in addition to registered mail, insured mail and non insured postal parcels. The "domestic express mail processing rules" stipulates that in case of loss, damage or shortage of uninsured mail, compensation shall be made according to the actual loss, but the maximum amount of compensation shall not exceed 2 times the postage paid. It can be seen that the postal law implements the principle of limited compensation. The first paragraph of Article 112 of the general principles of the civil law and the first paragraph of article 113 of the contract law both stipulate that the load of the permanent elongation of compensation for breach of contract by one party reaching a specified value shall be equivalent to the loss caused by the other party. It can be seen that the compensation principle implemented by the general principles of civil law and contract law is inconsistent with the compensation principle of postal law. Compared with the general principles of civil law and contract law, the "rules for the handling of domestic express mail" as an administrative rule is a subordinate law, which should not be applied when it conflicts with the superior law. Even if the postal law as a law makes such provisions, it should also apply the general principles of civil law and contract law, because the general principles of civil law and contract law are the basic civil laws of our country and formulated by the National People's Congress; The postal law is a general law formulated by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. In addition, the defendant printed the clause of only paying twice the postage on the express according to the provisions of the "domestic express mail processing rules", which excluded the plaintiff's main rights and exempted its own main rights, including the typical format clause and Overlord clause. According to Article 40 of the contract law, it should be deemed as an invalid clause. Therefore, the defendant argued that it had informed the plaintiff that this clause could not be a reason to mitigate it when signing the contract

3. It is against the principle of fairness to apply the postal law to adjudicate this case. Fairness is the basic spirit of law and also the division of justice