Malpractice. Tort cases focus. Difficult problems of judicial application - Judicial practice of malpractice. Tort crime cases

Author: Miao Shuquan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: Dereliction of duty crimes and crimes committed by state organ personnel abusing their power to infringe upon the personal rights and democratic rights of citizens are serious criminal offenses. They have an extremely severe social harmfulness beyond people's imagination, often causing casualties far more numerous than those from crimes like murder or injury. They also result in economic losses for the state and people that often surpass those from economic crimes. Statistics show that from 2000 to June 2005, procuratorial organs handled 34,685 cases involving 38,554 people in various dereliction of duty crimes, causing direct economic losses to the state of as high as 48.05 billion yuan. At the same time, like corruption and bribery crimes, they also have an extremely detrimental political impact on the Party and the state.
What is even more noteworthy is that the social harmfulness caused by dereliction of duty crimes is often manifested as a combination of various major adverse consequences in a single case. That is, a single case of dereliction of duty crime often involves both casualties and property losses, while also damaging the image of the Party and government. For example, statistics show that the massive forest fire that occurred in the Daxing'anling region from May 6 to June 2, 1987, was the largest in terms of forest destruction, casualties, and losses since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The direct losses were as follows:
- Affected forest and open woodland area: 1.14 million hectares, with 870,000 hectares damaged.
- Burned timber storage: 850,000 cubic meters.
- Various equipment: 2,488 units, including 617 large-scale equipment such as cars and tractors.
- Bridges and culverts: 67 structures, totaling 1,340 meters.
- Dedicated railway lines: 9.2 kilometers.
- Communication lines: 483 kilometers.
- Power transmission lines: 284 kilometers.
- Grain: 3.25 million kilograms.
- Buildings: 614,000 square meters, including 400,000 square meters of residential buildings.
A total of 10,807 households and 56,092 people were affected. There were 193 deaths and 226 injuries. More than 58,800 military and civilian personnel participated in fighting the fire, including over 34,000 soldiers. The fire severely damaged the local forest resources and deteriorated the ecological environment. According to local veteran forest workers, it takes 70 to 100 years for a single tree to mature in that area. This shows the widespread and far-reaching adverse effects of the fire. The case also drew widespread attention from the international community, causing an extremely detrimental political impact on the Party and the state.
Later investigations revealed that the fire was neither a natural disaster nor caused by destruction. The five fire sources were all ignited by forest workers throwing cigarette butts carelessly, which then set fire to trees. This was closely related to the leadership of the local forestry department's negligence in fire prevention work, lack of supervision and inspection, and failure to summarize lessons from previous fires. As a result, when the fire broke out, relevant personnel did not promptly identify and address it. In essence, this was a serious case of dereliction of duty.