of January 10, the Higher People's Court of Hubei Province held a public hearing to retry a case of illegal mining. The defendant in the original trial was acquitted and the original judgment was revoked. On the morning
of January 10, the Hubei High Court held a public hearing to sentence the petitioners Tang Lizhen, Wang Ziqiang and Lu Huachao for the crime of illegal mining. Some news media attended the court.
Petitioners Tang Lizhen, Wang Ziqiang and Lu Huachao jointly operated the quarry in Datongsi Village, Zhangbang Town, Qichun County, to mine, process and sell amphibolite ore for construction. In December 2019, the three defendants in the original trial were sentenced to two years' imprisonment, one year and eight months' imprisonment and one year's imprisonment respectively by the People's Court of Qichun County for the crime of illegal mining, and fined. At the same time, the illegal gains of the three defendants in the original trial of 7 million yuan were recovered according to law and turned over to the state treasury. After the sentence was pronounced, Tang Lizhen, Wang Ziqiang, and Lu Huachao all refused to accept it and appealed respectively. The second instance rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment. After the ruling took legal effect, the three defendants in the original trial still refused to accept it and appealed to the court. The Hubei High Court accepted the case according to law and held a public hearing.
The trial found that in 2015, Tang Lizhen, Wang Ziqiang and Lu Huachao jointly operated the quarry in Datongsi Village, Zhangbang Town, Qichun County (a non-company private enterprise, hereinafter referred to as the quarry), and the mining license of the quarry was valid from August 12, 2014 to March 12, 2017. On February 28, 2017, the quarry submitted an application for renewal of mining rights to the Mining Office of Qichun County Land and Resources Bureau. On March 13 of the same year, the Mining Office of Qichun County issued the Notice on Stopping Production of the Quarry in Datongsi Village, Zhangbang Town, Qichun County (hereinafter referred to as the Notice on Stopping Production) to the quarry, requiring that production be organized only after the registration procedures for the renewal of the Mining License have been completed and the approval of the relevant departments. Tang Lizhen received the notice. On July 20, 2017, the Qichun County Mining Office issued a Notice on the Suspension of the Application for the Extension of the Mining Right of Amphibolite Mine for Construction in Fanjiawa Mining Area of Qichun County (hereinafter referred to as the Notice of Suspension) to the quarry, saying that the application for the extension of the mining right submitted by the quarry on February 28, 2017 had been received and organized on March 2. However, due to the comprehensive renovation of the stone industry in the whole province and the three-round planning of mineral resources in Qichun County, the relevant mining rights extension procedures are now suspended. However, the quarry did not stop production as required, and from April 2017 to the incident, the quarry mined and processed amphibolite ore for construction with a sales value of more than 7 million yuan.
In addition, the quarry filed an administrative lawsuit with the People's Court of Wuxue City on March 12, 2019 for refusing to accept the above two administrative acts of the Qichun County Mining Office, and the People's Court of Wuxue City made administrative judgments on April 24, 2019. Respectively revoke the administrative penalty act of the Notice of Suspension of Production and limit the defendant Qichun County Land and Resources Bureau to make a new administrative act on the application for the renewal of the mining right of the quarry within 10 days of the entry into force of the judgment. After the judgment was pronounced, the Natural Resources and Planning Bureau of Qichun County appealed to the Huanggang Intermediate Court, which rejected the appeal and upheld the original administrative judgment. The Mining Office of Qichun County, executed by the People's Court of Wuxue City, fulfilled the obligations determined by the administrative judgment on December 24, 2021, and issued the renewed Mining License for the quarry, which is valid from December 24, 2021 to August 24, 2022. After hearing, the
Hubei Higher Court held that the Datong Quarry had submitted an application for the extension of mining rights to the Qichun Mining Office before the expiration of the mining license, and that the Qichun Mining Office had not made a decision on whether to grant the extension within the legal time limit after accepting the application, and had made a Notice of Suspension to the Datong Quarry after the expiration of the time limit. The people's court has made a new administrative act on the application for renewal of mining right filed by Datong Quarry within the time limit of administrative judgment, so the application for renewal of mining right filed by Datong Quarry is actually in the state that the administrative organ has not made a decision on whether to grant the renewal within the time limit during the first and second instance of this case. According to the provisions of Article 50, paragraph 2, of the Administrative Licensing Law of the People's Republic of China, if the administrative organ fails to make a decision within the time limit, it shall be deemed to grant the extension . Therefore, the mining behavior of Tang Lizhen, Wang Ziqiang and Lu Huachao after the expiration of the mining license does not belong to the behavior of "mining without obtaining the mining license" stipulated in Article 343 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China. The original judgment found that Tang Lizhen, Wang Ziqiang and Lu Huachao's mining products were "unauthorized mining without obtaining a license" when the mining license expired without the approval of the administrative organ, which was a mistake in ascertaining the facts and applying the law and should be corrected. The three defendants were acquitted according to law, and the fines and property recovered by the original judgment were returned. The revision of
this case reflects the determination and responsibility of the Hubei Higher People's Court to actively implement the criminal policy of the Central Committee and the Supreme People's Court on attaching great importance to the trial of cases involving property rights protection, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of private enterprises and private entrepreneurs equally, giving full play to the function of trial supervision, strictly abiding by the legal bottom line, and correcting wrongful cases in a practical and realistic manner. The collegial panel that undertook the case also attached a post-judgment message to the judgment of the case, hoping to convey the awareness of the rule of law and the voice of the rule of law to the society through the retrial and revision of the judgment of the case: The requirement of "optimizing the business environment of the rule of law" should be based on every administrative practice in accordance with the law, and the priority of law enforcement in good faith and the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises and individuals in accordance with the law should be given to the improvement of the government governance system.
In recent years, the Hubei Higher People's Court has attached great importance to the protection of the business environment, taking the creation of a legal business environment as the focus of the trial work, actively implementing the economic impact assessment system for enterprise-related cases, earnestly safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the parties involved in enterprise-related cases, and striving to make the people feel fairness and justice in every judicial case.
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