Facing the strong denial of the opposing lawyer, Ouyang Xue was unfazed, "Your Honor, the law stipulates that if a contract contains conspicuously unequal and tyrannical clauses, even if my client doesn’t receive compensation, they can apply for the contract to be declared invalid."
"Now, I request that the court rules this contract invalid."
Seeing Ouyang Xue step back, seeking a second-best solution by not claiming for damages but only asking for the contract to be declared invalid, Gu Kanghua also breathed a sigh of relief.
His lawyer glanced at him, and he nodded, signifying acceptance of this outco; only then did the lawyer continue, "Your Honor, my client is a law-abiding, respectable citizen and businessman. Since these farrs are unwilling to accept the contract terms, my client will not force them, and the parties can simply terminate the contract."
Seeing that they wouldn’t get compensation, the villagers watching the trial in the courtroom beca anxious, "That won’t do, we disagree!"
"The unscrupulous businessman must pay!"
"Lawyer Ouyang, don’t you want your legal fee anymore?"
"Order, order!" The judge banged the gavel several tis before the villagers finally quieted down.
Ouyang Xue helplessly spread her hands, "Everyone, it’s not that I’m not fighting for you, but being able to terminate the contract already counts as fairness and justice from the judge and the law. You signed the contract yourselves. They’re letting you out of it now—what more do you expect?"
"If there’s no legal fee, so be it. I’ve done my utmost and have a clear conscience. If you’re not satisfied with this outco, then find another lawyer to continue the fight on your behalf. I support you in spirit."
The villagers hung their heads, silent.
In their greed for the extra money offered by Gu Kanghua, they betrayed Yang Yu.
If this was truly to be the outco, they would have absolutely lost miserably.
Not only would they lose Yang Yu’s money, but also not get a penny of Gu Kanghua’s money, not to ntion the penalty—they had purely brought this upon themselves!
After a while, Ah Gui shyly approached Yang Yu and asked, "Ah Yu, if we terminate the lease on our land, would you still be willing to rent? We could give you a thirty percent discount, no, fifty percent!"
"I don’t know you well, please call Mr. Yang, thank you." Yang Yu glanced at Ah Gui, "I’ve already found land to rent, I don’t need it anymore."
"What?" Ah Gui was like being struck by lightning, standing there stunned, not knowing what to think.
They had thought that after terminating the contract and lowering the price, Yang Yu might agree.
But they hadn’t expected Yang Yu to have already secured land to rent, which completely dashed their hopes.
Nearly two million! Not to ntion ten years, they couldn’t earn that much even in twenty years.
As a result of their greed, it all went to waste, and they were filled with hatred!
"If neither party has any new evidence, then the contract will be terminated." The judge was about to pass the judgent when the opposing lawyer suddenly said, "Your Honor, Lawyer Ouyang previously relied solely on conjecture to speculate about my client Mr. Gu Kanghua, causing great damage to Mr. Gu’s reputation. My client requests that Lawyer Ouyang apologize in court."
The judge looked at Ouyang Xue and said, "Lawyer Ouyang, if you don’t have concrete evidence to accuse Mr. Gu of using fraudulent thods, you do indeed owe Mr. Gu an apology."
"Playing the saint while being a sinner, is this never-ending?" Ouyang Xue snorted, "Your Honor, my evidence cos from a sowhat irregular source, and I originally didn’t want to bring it out. But since Mr. Gu Kanghua is asking for a hamr, I’ll let him have exactly that."
Ouyang Xue pulled out a laptop from her bag, and Gu Kanghua’s eyes imdiately bulged, shouting loudly, "Your Honor, this is my secretary’s laptop, which was stolen by a thief! This is stolen goods, it can’t be used as evidence!"
"I bought this from a second-hand market, and if you insist on calling it stolen goods, that’s not impossible, but that would have to wait until you report it, and then the police station can determine whether it is stolen goods. For now, it’s just a second-hand laptop that I bought."
Ouyang Xue said with a smile on her face, "I just didn’t expect to have bought Mr. Gu’s secretary’s laptop. Mr. Gu, you’re so agitated, is there sothing shaful on this laptop?"
"I’ll present the evidence first, and as for its legal effect, we can discuss that after the police comrades have completed their investigation."
Ouyang Xue turned on the laptop, projected the screen onto the courtroom’s large display, and began to recover deleted files.
Just as expected, Ouyang Xue quickly recovered two docunts of the "Plantation Land Lease Agreent."
Upon opening the two contract docunts, one had harsh ’overbearing clauses’, while the other did not!
"It is indeed this bastard who swindled us!"
"Son of a bitch! Damn it!"
"He must compensate for the breach of contract!"
The villagers were very angry, while Ouyang Xue said with a gleeful tone, "Your Honor, if this evidence counts, I still maintain my original demand, asking Mr. Gu Kanghua to compensate the villagers one billion for breach of contract, ntal anguish, and lost wages."
"Of course, if Your Honor thinks this evidence is not legal, it’s fine if the money isn’t compensated, but asking for an apology, that is out of the question."
Perspiration was apparent on the foreheads of Gu Kanghua and his defense lawyer, but his lawyer was still sly, "Your Honor, why do I feel like Lawyer Ouyang knew about these two deleted docunts beforehand? It can’t be ruled out that this was a trap Lawyer Ouyang set on purpose."
Ouyang Xue said, "Firstly, anyone who knows about computers is aware that the files have a tistamp of the last modification, and there are backups on cloud servers. It will be clear when these two docunts were created once you check."
"Secondly, I have another key piece of evidence here that will unequivocally prove that Mr. Gu Kanghua swindled the villagers when signing the contract."
As she spoke, Ouyang Xue took out an evidence bag, which contained an identical contract, "This is the original contract that Mr. Gu showed to the villagers, which has many fingerprints stained with grease; they likely ca from the villagers’ hands while passing the docunts around after eating without having cleaned their oily hands."
"Just have the police verify the fingerprints on this contract, and that will be enough to prove that Mr. Gu Kanghua used fraudulent thods to deceive the villagers."
"Excellent! Well done, Lawyer Ouyang!" The villagers clapped and cheered joyously, each one of them filled with excitent.
Mr. Gu’s face turned pale, and he shook his head repeatedly, "Impossible! I had my secretary tear up that contract; the one in your hands is fake!"
After saying this, Gu Kanghua covered his mouth imdiately and his face was filled with terror.
"The contract in my hands is indeed fake; apart from my fingerprints, nobody else’s are on it. However, Your Honor, Mr. Gu’s own testimony should be reliable, right?"
Ouyang Xue smiled confidently, "Indeed, there was a contract without those ’overbearing clauses’, and Mr. Gu had ordered his secretary to tear it up. With Mr. Gu’s own testimony, can we establish Mr. Gu’s act of fraud?"
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