Coming down from the witness stand, Chairman Wei sat next to Lu Ming.
Christine looked at Lu Ming with an even more unfriendly look.
Chairman Wei's testimony in court was more like a show, a business act to promote his own bank.
Lawyer Smith remained silent and very graceful. After Chairman Wei finished his "testimony", he stood up and said, "Your Honor, I request that the witness' testimony be invalidated and the court be adjourned temporarily."
"The testimony is ruled invalid!" Christine looked at Lu Ming, "Come with me!"
"The plaintiff requests to participate!" Smith stood up again.
Christine nodded.
Lu Ming looked at Christine's face and whispered in Wei Baozeng's ear: "The plan continues. You go out and make a statement. You don't have to wait for me. I will probably be locked up in a small dark room." The small dark room is of course a joke. It is a temporary detention room in the court. The environment is still good.
Whether the "testimony" is valid or invalid in court does not affect the effect of the show.
But Judge Christine looked irritated.
…
"Bailiff, lock him up! For 24 hours." Christine made a gesture after entering the office.
The black-uniformed bailiff who was called into the corridor by Christine's gesture was stunned, and walked over reluctantly, "Lawyer Lu, please."
Lu Ming smiled at him as if he understood.
This is the judge's privilege. If someone is found guilty of contempt of court, they can be locked up as a minor punishment. Of course, the punishment will not exceed 24 hours, so it is considered a minor offense and there will be no criminal record.
Moreover, the crime of contempt of court can be either serious or minor, and judges are very flexible in sentencing. For example, in my previous life, a former president of a Western country was convicted of contempt of court for refusing to provide relevant documents as the court required. Before the relevant documents were submitted, he was fined 10,000 yuan per day, but he did not have to go to jail.
What I am doing is just the initial stage of contempt of court.
Smith looked at the result and nodded with satisfaction.
Lu Ming thought for a moment and said, "Your Honor, before I am put in solitary confinement, I have a few words to say."
Judge Christine waved her hand and the bailiff stood aside for the moment.
"Regarding the Baoyin Bank case, first of all, whether Mr. Wei and Mr. Bi Hanting have formed a legal relationship, and whether the neighbor principle applies here, I think it is worth discussing."
Smith immediately said, "Checking bank account statements is a professional behavior. Although Mr. Wei and Mr. Bi Hanting are friends and have not signed a service agreement, it is precisely because of this friendship that the legal distance between the two is blurred. In fact, according to the moth in the soda can case, Mr. Wei and Mr. Bi Hanting have formed a legal relationship by default!"
The opponent stopped showing off and Smith counterattacked very quickly.
Lu Ming nodded. "The neighbor principle is naturally an important principle in our economic relations. However, it is inappropriate to equate legal distance with foreseeable harm. In the absence of a contract, if the economic relationship between the two parties is considered to have a legal relationship as long as one party causes harm to the other party, this will damage our public order and good customs."
"For example, in this case, Mr. Wei was trying to help a friend, but ended up getting into trouble with the law and possibly even going bankrupt. How does this shape the values of our society?"
"The neighbor principle should actually have three parallel test criteria. First, is the economic loss caused to the plaintiff reasonably foreseeable? Second, does the legal distance between the parties create a legal relationship? Third, is it fair, just and reasonable to hold the defendant legally responsible? Is it in line with public policy principles?"
"I think the neighbor principle is a reasonable judgment only when the answers to these three points are affirmative at the same time."
"In this case, we can reluctantly affirm the second clause because my client runs a bank. It can be assumed that although he was helping his friend make inquiries, he also had a legal relationship with his friend."
"But first, my client could never have anticipated that this inquiry would cause any economic losses to the plaintiff. Third, asking my client to bear legal responsibility would seriously damage our social values. If a person, without harming the interests of others, is punished severely in the legal sense for helping a friend out of kindness, that is absolutely judicial injustice!"
"Are you finished?" Christine asked calmly.
Smith looked at Lu Ming with a bit more surprise, and began to think seriously.
Lu Ming nodded to Christine.
Christine made a gesture, and the bailiff came over reluctantly. Lu Ming did not make things difficult for him and followed him out.
…
After being detained for about half an hour, Lu Ming was released. In the corridor, Wei Baozeng was waiting for him with a wry smile.
"Were there many media outlets present when the statement was made?" Lu Ming asked.
Wei Baozeng nodded.
Lu Ming pondered and said, "We still have to wait and see. This statement will not have any effect on ordinary depositors. When the bank's assets are unsealed, they will run to withdraw the money. We have to be prepared. But it's not bad to take this opportunity to promote Baoyin's new concept."
Wei Baozeng wanted to say something, but stopped himself.
Lu Ming shook his head: "To be honest, I originally said that I had a 60% chance of winning, but now it's probably only 40% to 50%. I can only leave it to fate."
This chief judge is really difficult to deal with, especially since she insists on treating herself as someone who wants to pursue her daughter, with whom she depends on each other for everything.
Then in her opinion, she is naturally full of flaws.
Judges are also human beings and have emotions. It is impossible for them to always be fair and just.
Moreover, the three-point test criteria of the neighbor principle were originally produced in the 1960s and 1970s and were officially determined in the late 1980s. Today, it is a little bit ahead of its time.
After thinking for a while, "Bi Hanting's feeling when he sees Chairman Wei seems different from when he sees you."
Wei Baozeng smiled bitterly: "They used to be very good friends, but Uncle Bi lost too much, and he became a laughing stock..."
Lu Ming was about to say something when Wei Baozeng said, "Lawyer Lu, how about this? I'll talk to Uncle Bi about it. Our Baoyin Bank will take over Nadu Pictures. Although Nadu has sold all the copyrights of its previous films and has become an empty shell, it still has some studios and contracted artists. It may not be impossible to make a comeback, especially with you as a partner."
"As long as Uncle Bi agrees to a settlement, although Baoyin Bank will be burdened with heavy debts, I am now confident that I can get through this difficult time."
Lu Ming originally had other ideas, but after listening to Wei Baozeng's words, he thought about it and said, "Well, we can talk about it and see what the other party's conditions are." His original idea was a bit harsh, so he would talk about it later if it really didn't work.
Nadu was once very famous, but the film industry now is different from that of later generations. Running a film company today is like a roller coaster. It can be said that a movie can make a company prosper, and a movie can also cause a company to decline quickly.
Nadu, mainly because of a film that he made with a huge investment of 500,000 and lost everything, started to go downhill.
A few years ago, when Nadu invested 500,000 yuan to shoot this record-breaking film in the history of film, it was at its peak.
It seems that Wei Baozeng's change was due to the good feedback when his father made the statement, so he regained confidence and dared to take on the movie.
"Let's see what Chairman Bi says first." Lu Ming pondered, "Besides, this case is not that pessimistic, so when you discuss it, you should treat it as a normal investment, not a psychological one of wanting to compensate him."
Wei Baozeng smiled slightly: "I understand. Besides, you have to come with me. Not only are you my legal representative, but we are partners, right?"