Data source
Date of text
31 May 2001
Country
Court name
High People's Court of Zhejiang Province
Justice(s)
WANG Qinghua (presiding)
ZHANG Qin
XING Zhuojun
Sources
InforMEA
Link to full text
People's Procuratorate of Zhejiang Province filed a civil prosecutorial protest against the judgment made by Jiaxing Intermediate People's Court on 20 October 1998. The Procuratorate claimed that the presumption of causality shall be applied in the environmental pollution cases in identifying the causal link between the pollution and the damage. In accordance with the evidence presented, it can be reasonably presumed that the death of tadpoles was caused by the water polluted by the defendants in 1st instance. Judicial interpretation of the Supreme People's Court indicates that the inversion of burden of proof shall be applied in the lawsuits concerning damages caused by environmental pollution. It is an improperly application of law by the Jiaxing Intermediate People's Court. High People's Court of Zhejiang Province reaffirmed the principle of presumption of causality and inversion of burden of proof in deciding environmental damage cases. However, it believed that the impaired party needed to prove the facts that the defendants polluted the environment with specific hazardous substance, and the damage was caused thereby, based on the principle of presumption of causality. Furthermore, impaired party shall also prove that this specific hazardous substance may cause such damages in general. Since the plaintiff in 1st instance cannot identify the specific substance that caused the tadpoles' death, it failed to meet the premise of applying the principle. Accordingly High People's Court of Zhejiang Province held that the reason of the prosecutorial protest filed by People's Procuratorate of Zhejiang Province is not established, and judgment made by Jiaxing Intermediate People's Court shall be upheld.