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Analysis of typical administrative litigation cases. After signing an investment promotion agreement, if an enterprise is unable to perform the contract, how should it protect its legitimate rights and interests? In addition, after a dispute arises after signing an investment promotion agreement, which department should be named as the defendant? Let’s first understand it through a specific case.

The Leather Committee of a Chamber of Commerce in Guangdong signed a project investment agreement with the competent department of a town in Qingyuan City. The agreement stipulates that the relevant departments will provide 2,430 acres of land for the association. The chamber of commerce paid 200 million yuan as the land lump sum fee based on the local land lump sum price of 84,000 yuan. The administrative entity of a certain district also stamped and confirmed the investment agreement. After the above-mentioned agreement was signed, the chamber of commerce invited several companies to participate in land development and paid 26.9 million yuan to the town authorities as an advance payment for the land. Later, due to the postponement of the project construction, a certain city department signed refund agreements with several companies of the association. Because the project could not be constructed, they signed a refund agreement and terminated the previously signed project investment agreement. However, disputes arose later and they agreed to return a total of 26.9 million yuan in two phases to several companies in the chamber of commerce.

The competent department of a certain town failed to return more than 2,000 yuan as scheduled, so these companies filed an administrative lawsuit. There are still many cases of this type during the case handling process, and they are collectively referred to as investment promotion agreements. Investment Promotion Agreement In the actual process of handling cases, investment promotion agreements have various names, such as project investment agreement, investment promotion agreement, park entry agreement, cooperation agreement, etc. The names are different, but they are all investment promotion enterprises. A large number of disputes often occur during the process of signing, performing, canceling, and terminating contracts for investment companies. Some are due to changes in leadership, some are due to major policy adjustments, some are due to invalid agreements, and some are due to simple breach of contract, etc. There are many disputes.

The court of first instance held that the town authorities signed a project investment agreement and the parties failed to refund the money within the time limit stipulated in the refund agreement and should return the money to the companies of the Chamber of Commerce. The district competent authority stamped the investment agreement as a witness. Moreover, the act of sealing has made the chamber of commerce trust the company and plays a leading role in the signing of the project investment agreement. Therefore, they should be jointly responsible for the rights and obligations determined in the project investment agreement, and should jointly bear responsibility. Therefore, the court ruled that the district authorities should return 26.9 million yuan and interest to several companies of the above-mentioned chamber of commerce, and the town authorities should bear joint and several liability. The relevant departments were dissatisfied and appealed to the Provincial High Court.

In 2019, the Guangdong Provincial High Court upheld the original verdict and dismissed the appeal. This case has also been listed as a typical case of Guangdong Province announced by Guangdong Province in 2020. The Guangdong Provincial High Court believes that in investment promotion activities, administrative agencies should sign and perform administrative agreements in accordance with the law based on the principle of honesty and trustworthiness. The People's Court will carefully review the reasons for failure to perform and liability for breach of contract, correct the administrative agencies' non-compliance with the contract, and effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of private enterprises. This is the typical significance of this case considered by the Guangdong Provincial High Court.

In fact, in addition to this typical meaning, there are many things to pay attention to:

First, there is the characterization of the incident. After signing the investment promotion agreement, what is the reason why the project cannot be performed?

There are usually two types of situations: one is caused by subjective reasons such as leadership changes, functional adjustments, etc. There is also a situation where a larger company or a better company is interested in the land, etc., which are all subjective breaches of contract. According to relevant regulations, government departments should perform the agreement and bear compensation and legal liabilities. Not only compensation, but also legal liability.

The second common situation may be more common because the original investment agreement has to be changed due to the needs of national public interests, such as temporary changes to the city's master plan in the region, or due to environmental reasons, major project construction, water conservancy, forestry, transportation facilities, science, education, culture and health and other public interests. In this case, according to the opinions on property rights protection made by relevant departments and the provisions of Article 31 of the "Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment", this situation should be carried out in accordance with legal authority and procedures, the above agreement should be terminated, and the investors should be fully compensated for the losses suffered thereby. Therefore, first determine what kind of situation you encounter. If it falls into the first category, then compensation and compensation litigation should be carried out. The second category is administrative compensation.

Second, find the correct legal basis. Only when the legal basis is accurately characterized can a correct law be found. For example, the correct law in this case should be administrative legal provisions, not civil law-related provisions. There is a big difference between administration and civil affairs.

Third, we must collect factual basis, that is, evidence.

Fourth, the most important thing is to formulate a correct rights protection plan. For example, what is your lawsuit request, who should you sue, which court should you sue to, and the formulation of the entire lawsuit plan.

From this case, we can see that when encountering similar issues such as investment promotion agreements, if there is a dispute with the administrative department, you must seek judicial relief in a timely manner, and find a breakthrough to solve the problem and protect your rights and interests through professional analysis by lawyers, evidence sorting, etc. Beijing Yingting Law Firm also reminds all parties involved that when encountering such problems, they must consult us in time. After analysis, they should understand the laws and regulations, policy basis, and similar case handling ideas before making a decision, so as not to miss the best opportunity to protect their rights and interests and cause irreparable losses to themselves.

The legal knowledge in this article does not represent legal advice. If you encounter similar problems, you should analyze them in detail.