Mother, child and… the land

(QBĐT) - It is difficult to tell all the hidden stories behind these incidents. Because everyone has their own reasons and explanations. It is as if they did not want it to happen, but it was forced by the situation.

1. Nearly 80 years old, Ms. Lien filed a lawsuit against her son to get back her land. She said that things had come to this point because she had no other choice, and she did not want it to happen, because after all, they were mother and daughter. The land she wanted to divide was also the land that her husband and wife had established after their marriage. That was where they gave birth to 5 children and experienced both hardship and happiness. Then the children grew up, got married, and each had their own family and happy home. As for Chau, because he was the only son (the other 4 were all daughters), he lived with his grandparents.

However, “man proposes, God disposes.” There was a time when the old couple did not get along, so she went to an acquaintance’s house (with no one to look after it) to live alone. Now, she wants to return to live on her own land, because of her old age and her inability to cope with the weather. “But perhaps, he is angry with me for not being faithful to his father and son,” she shared. Therefore, she now asks the court to divide the nearly ^1,900m2 plot of land for her in half. She also asks the court to divide the remaining half into 6 parts for her and her 5 children.

Mr. Chau agreed with his mother's proposal. But he did not accept dividing the remaining half into 6 parts. Because since 1998, his parents have been living apart. Since then, he has been taking care of his father alone, until the day his father passed away. His wish is to receive half of the land. The 4 sisters, who have related rights and obligations, initially agreed to let the panel of judges divide it according to the provisions of the law. But after seeing that, Mr. Chau showed a resolute and uncompromising attitude, the sisters agreed to hand over the property they were entitled to to him, without any conditions.

This time, it was Ms. Lien's turn to "give in", only asking to receive a part of the land area, specifically 15m wide, more than 38m long, total area of 561.7m ² . She handed over the entire remaining land area to Mr. Chau. It seemed that the matter had been resolved peacefully and reasonably. Surprisingly, Mr. Chau continued to not agree to give his mother 15m wide, but only 14m. However, every concession has its limits.

Initially, the panel of judges at that trial thought that the case would not become tense, when the people with related interests agreed not to accept the inherited land, but voluntarily transferred it to their brother. During the deliberation, the presiding judge told me privately: “Internal family matters, especially the division and dispute over inheritance, are easy to say but not easy. It is true that in these cases, people cannot reach an agreement and file a lawsuit in court. Our responsibility is to follow the law, and the internal affairs of other people's families, they resolve it themselves. Like in the above case, fortunately, the four sisters did not "make things worse", demanding to divide and accept everything, otherwise the matter would have been pushed further. Because, once people choose interests as the top priority with the intention of fighting for it, they will never give up their goals”.

2. A judge who has participated in many inheritance disputes said: “In fact, many people do not want to “show their backs to others”, “make a mountain out of a molehill”, and it is not necessarily to fight for “more”, but because there are people who live with their blood relatives too much, so they file a petition to ask the court to make a clear distinction”.

He still clearly remembers the image of his children and grandchildren leading an old lady who was nearly 90 years old to court that day. She participated in the trial as the defendant of her own son. She had 10 children, of whom 5 had passed away. Her husband had passed away more than 5 years before. Before the trial took place, her children had discussed many times and divided the inheritance of more than 1,000 ^{square meters} of land. Most of the children agreed not to take the inheritance but to transfer it to her. Only Mr. Hieu consistently insisted on taking the inheritance for himself.

Another strange thing about this case is that the plaintiff was not Mr. Hieu but Mr. Thiet, another son. At the trial, Mr. Thiet stated that he filed the lawsuit not to fight for inherited land, but that all of his land would be given to his mother. After Mr. Thiet finished his presentation, his sons, daughters, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren all agreed to give all of their inherited property to her for full use.

As for Mr. Hieu, who insisted on inheriting the land, he was not present at the trial that day because he was working far away, even though the court had summoned him many times. Of course, Mr. Hieu was absent, but the panel of judges still considered dividing the inheritance according to the law. This was also the wish of the plaintiff, the defendant and the people involved. Responding to the panel of judges, the 90-year-old woman calmly and gently said: “Well, every child is a child. Parents give birth to children, God gives them their personalities. If Hieu wants it that way, I am not narrow-minded. I just hope that in the future, the brothers will unite and love each other.”

That day's trial ended smoothly and quickly. It seemed that for them, filing a lawsuit was an undesirable choice, so everyone wanted to end it quickly. After all, they were still mother and son, blood brothers. After the trial, Mr. Thiet said as if he had relieved a long-standing burden: "Even if it is blood relations, we must be clear and distinct with each other, so as not to argue and debate forever, causing loss of family affection. Going to court is also to satisfy him."

Le Thy

* Names of characters in the article have been changed.

Source