Validity of legal documents questioned

A dispute over the validity of legal doc uments signed by an 88yearold Shanghai resident, to leave his proper ty to his local greengrocer when he passes away instead of his relatives, has continued with more details surfacing.

Ma Lin, the man in question, lives alone in Shanghai’s Baoshan district. With his wife and son passing a way years ago, M a befriended his local greengrocer who in turn has helped M a in his daily life and when he needed more urgent help.

Ma fell at home in 20 17. T he greengrocer took him to the hospital and continued to care for him during his recover y, according to China N ational Radio. When M a was discharged he in vited the greengrocer and his wife and three children to move in with him.

In 2019, Ma had two legal documents dra wn up. One appointed the greengrocer as his legal guardian, and the other de tails his desire to bequeath his property, an apartment c urrently valued at 3 million yuan ($457 ,000), to the greengrocer.

The legac ysupport agreement requires the greengrocer to support M a during his life time and places him in charge of his internment af ter death, in re turn for Ma’s estate.

Both documents were notarized by the notar y of fice in Shanghai’ s Putuo district.

The greengrocer told Xinmin Evening N ews that he has tak en care of Ma for the past 10 years, and feels at ease with M a’s decision to bequeath his property to him.

However, M a’s relatives, upon hearing about the documents, have challenged their validity.

Ma’s niece, surnamed W u, told Beijing N ews that some relatives also cared for him during his hospitalization in 20 17. Another relative added that the y took turns taking care of Ma while he was in hospital and hired caregivers, opposing other accounts.

Wu said that af ter being discharged from the hospital, M a refused offers from the relatives to provide care.

Additionally, Ma was diagnosed with the Alzheimer ’s disease in 2017, and his relatives sa y this draws into question the validit y of the legal documents.

In response, Zhou Xianchun, from the notary office in Putuo district made an announcement on Thursday, sa ying “The notar y has talked with Ma many times and he repeatedly confirmed his wishes before the issuance of the notarization.”

The con versations with M a and his medical records didn ’t show any signs to prove he was unable to make good judgment, he added.

Zhou said it had checked Ma’s situation with his neighborhood committee during several phone calls.

“The relatives with doubts can submit an application for a re view to the office within a year,” he said.

An X iang, direc tor of Bei jing Dexiang Law Firm, said those with doubts should provide e vidence to prove that Ma was in a state of incapacity or limited capacit y before the notarization.

Official data shows that the elderly population in C hina, those aged over 65, is e xpected to reach 248 million this year.

“In an aging society, there will be surging demands and cases in this area and the law will progress continuously,” he said.

Zhu Wei, an associate professor at China University of Political Science and L aw, said the ef fectiveness of appointing nonrelatives as guardians lies in super vising whether those appointed per form their duties.

“It’s crucial for local authorities to visit the family regularly to supervise the beneficiar y’s per formance,” Zhu said.