Tokyo Barrister: Start the law firm bankruptcy

Chapter 912 Kitahara's Final Statement

As Attorney Tamashiro finished his speech, everyone's eyes fell on Kitahara. How would this young man who had brought countless troubles to Nippon Steel deal with Tamashiro's attack? For Kitahara, whether Nippon Steel can win the case is not only related to the workshop contractors, but also to whether the investigation into the organization behind Eriko can be promoted.

If the voices of small creditors are not taken seriously, then it will undoubtedly be more difficult for lawyers of small creditors to obtain Nippon Steel's internal account books.

Under the gaze of the crowd, Kitahara slowly stood up. The executives from Nippon Steel, the bank, and Future Space in the audience all began to tense up for some reason. Many people unconsciously held their breath.

"Chief Judge," Kitahara said, "The defense raised by the Nippon Steel agent is not valid. Regarding the ownership of fixed assets such as production lines and manufacturing equipment, the standard for determining whether a piece of production equipment is attached to real estate and becomes part of the real estate is—"

"Will the dismantling of the production line cause a significant depreciation in its value?" Kitahara said calmly, "If the dismantling of a fixed asset causes its value to drop significantly or even lose its use, then we can say that this fixed asset has become part of the factory building."

“Conversely, if the removal of a fixed asset does not result in a depreciation in value, then it should not be considered to have become part of the real estate.”

"The main costs of dismantling the production equipment in the factory in this case are additional costs such as earthwork and disposal of purchased generators, which will not lead to a significant depreciation of the value of the production equipment."

“Therefore, the workshop contractor’s exercise of bankruptcy recovery rights over the factory’s production equipment is in compliance with the law!!”

Tamashiro, Tanimoto, Abe and others sitting in the defendant's seat have already felt the pressure. This young man is really constantly causing trouble for them.

Kitahara continued:

"Regarding whether the bankruptcy recovery right can be exercised over the currency, the defendant's lawyer believes that according to the legal principle that ownership is transferred once the currency is delivered, the workshop contractor cannot exercise the right to recover the currency and can only recover the debt in accordance with the bankruptcy compensation procedure for ordinary creditors."

"This view is incorrect," Kitahara said bluntly.

"Let me give you a very simple analogy. You are a bank depositor and you deposit 10 yen in the bank. Do you have a claim or ownership over this 10 yen?"

"Of course it's ownership!" Kitahara said firmly, "The legal principle that ownership is transferred once money is transferred does not apply to all situations. The simplest example is the relationship between depositors and banks. Even if the depositor gives the money to the bank, the ownership of the funds still belongs to the depositor."

“The key to determining whether the ownership of the currency has been transferred is whether the funds are stored in a separate custody account and can be distinguished from other funds.”

"In this case, Nippon Steel used a separate custody account to store the settlement funds of the workshop contractors. These settlement funds were not mixed with other income accounts of Nippon Steel. Therefore, the settlement funds of the workshop contractors can be clearly separated from the funds of Nippon Steel. Based on this, it can be determined that the ownership of the funds does not belong to Nippon Steel, and the workshop contractors have the right to exercise bankruptcy recovery rights!"

"Let me put it more bluntly and in more common terms--"

"Do you think the deposit you pay for renting a house is your property or the landlord's property? The ownership of money is not as simple as giving it to someone and then becoming the owner! In this case, the workshop contractor has sufficient basis to exercise bankruptcy recovery rights over the settlement money!!"

Kitahara's voice suddenly became louder.

It was still a popular explanation, but it immediately refuted the legal principle that Yucheng had just mentioned: "Once the money is delivered, the ownership is transferred immediately."

"As for the issue of mercy mentioned by the defendant's lawyer?"

Kitahara sneered, "It is a completely wrong view to compare market competition in the commercial society to the law of the jungle where the strong prey on the weak! In market competition, the competition is not about who is stronger, but whose products and services are more recognized and accepted by users." "The bankruptcy of Nippon Steel only shows a cruel fact-"

“The steel it produces is not satisfactory enough!!”

Kitahara's words suddenly exploded in the courtroom like thunder.

Nippon Steel holds a special place in the hearts of Japanese people, representing the quality of Japanese products. But now, this young man has coldly pointed out the fact that the reason why Nippon Steel's sales revenue is unsustainable is that its products have been abandoned by the world.

The words were very harsh.

However, it is the cold, irrefutable fact.

"If a company cannot produce satisfactory products, it should exit the market." Kitahara's voice continued, "For your so-called pity, you spent a lot of public funds and bank loans to save a company that should have gone bankrupt. When you did this, did you ever pity the citizens who worked hard to pay taxes?"

"You said that we need to be compassionate to the workers of Nippon Steel."

"Then, I want to ask - who will show mercy to the workers of the thousands of workshop contractors and suppliers who are owed money? These small companies work day and night to provide Nippon Steel with enough cheap materials, which is why Nippon Steel has been able to survive until now."

"Now, without being able to recover these settlement payments, there is no doubt that these thousands of Nippon Steel's suppliers will also go bankrupt. The only difference between them and Nippon Steel is that no one paid attention to them when they went bankrupt. No one paid attention to their workers when they lost their jobs."

"When you keep talking about mercy, have you ever shown your mercy to these people?!"

Kitahara's words were extremely sharp.

He mercilessly criticized Tamashiro's so-called compassionate tone.

"The essence of the issue in this case is to identify whether some of the property in the enterprise belongs to bankruptcy property. In this identification process, the court should make judgments based on the relevant legal provisions such as the Bankruptcy Law and the Civil Law, and should not be interfered with by additional factors."

"Modern society is not based on so-called pity."

“It’s about following the rules!”

“It’s trust in the law!”

"I believe that being an honest person who abides by the law will eventually lead to fair and just treatment!"

“This is the foundation of modern society!”

"That's all. That's all."

(End of this chapter)