Shanghai's Changning District People's Court has ordered a widow to pay 20,000 yuan (US$2,587) compensation to her landlord because her husband's suicide depreciated the value of his apartment, the Labor Daily reported today.
The couple rented an apartment from the landlord, surnamed Guan, in March, 2004. Guan noticed there was a tense relationship between the couple from their frequent quarrels and fighting which damaged some of the furnishings.
The husband hanged himself in the apartment in November, 2005 when his wife was not home. Guan then provided several options to the wife since he believed the apartment was inauspicious -- to rent the apartment for another two years to "dilute the horror environment in it," to buy the apartment based on its market value, or compensate the landlord for the depreciated value of the property. The widow rejected all the options.
Guan then filed a lawsuit against her in Changning court 14 months after the suicide, seeking 200,000 yuan as the depreciation based on the assessment of a professional property value.
The court said that the husband's suicide would cut the income from renting the apartment since the death cast shadow on the owner and tenants according to traditional Chinese customs. But to "treat the woman fairly," it ruled the compensation should be 20,000 yuan.
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