In these two days, the news that a Chongqing man committed suicide from jumping off one building, resulting in the death of other two students who were passing by, caused a heat discussion on the Internet. It’s not your illusion who is throwing thing but a dumping guy.
After 8 p.m. on December 24th, Li at the age of 31, chose to kill himself by jumping off an apartment hotel in Sanxia Square, one of Chongqing’ s most prosperous business districts, which resulted in the death of two students who were passing by and preparing for Art Examination in Chongqing. This is an unsafe Christmas Eve, but also the last Christmas Eve the aforementioned three people spent.
Li, killing himself, was irresponsible for himself and chose the most irresponsible way for society to commit suicide-- jumping off one building in the busy streets and resulting in the death of two young girls full of hope for life! Death isn’t the reason for us to exempt from punishment. The criminal and civil responsibility even if he has died.
Criminally, Li is suspected of causing death negligently.
The crime of causing death negligently refers to causing death because of the fault of the actor, which requires negligence and the actual harmful result of causing others death. In this case, why is Li jumping off a building not a simple accident but criminal incident? The key to their distinction is whether the actor has the potential to foresee harmful consequences. According to the police’s investigation, Li was not being pushed down the stairs but committed suicide by jumping off a building. That is to say, Li, who spontaneously jumped off a building, should have foreseen the possibility of hitting pedestrians when he chose the downtown area as the place to kill himself. However, he did not foresee the possibility due to negligence, or he predicted it but was too confident that it could be avoided, leading to the occurrence of the tragedy. Li shall be the crime of causing death negligently, but he shall be exempted from criminal responsibility because of his death. After all, we cannot put a dead man in jail, shoot a dead man or whip the corpse which may be the crime of insulting a corpse.
Some netizen think that Li has antisocial personality because his behaviour to kill himself resulted in others’ death, so Li shall be the crime of intentional murder. The biggest difference between indirect intentional murder and the crime of causing death negligently is that, the latter may foresee the result of the others death but do not expect the happen of the result while the former, knowing that the behaviour may lead to the others death, still lets it develop. For example, when one wants to set fire to one house, he knows someone in the house but still sets on fire directly, which is an act of indirect intentional murder. Now that Li has died, we cannot know his mentality so we do not discuss it in depth.
Li can be exempted from criminal responsibility but cannot be exempted from civil responsibility.
Li’s suicide deprived two citizens’ rights to life, so his responsibility cannot be entirely exempted even if he has died. After all, he was not be thrown from one building, and his behaviour of hitting the two students accurately was done before he died. In accordance with the tort liability law, Li, with complete civil capacity, infringing upon the right to life, should compensate the infringed ’s family for funeral expenses and compensate for death. At the same time, if the infringed ‘s family members suffered serious mental damage due to their daughter’ s death, they can also claim compensation for mental damage from Li.
Someone may argue that how can one dead compensate for money? Although Li had died, his property, the inheritance he cannot take to the grave, still exists. If his property is not enough to compensate, could the aggrieved person ask Li’s father or mother to compensate? It is not allowed unless they inherit Li’s estate. Speaking bluntly, Li’s legacy has to be paid off no matter who gets it, but Li’s family members don’t have obligation to compensate the aggrieved person with their own money in this case.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s another character who wants to minimize its presence -- the apartment hotel. Li is said to have lived on the 30th floor of this hotel, where he committed suicide. Is this hotel responsible?
Let’s read a case first.
In 2016, Sun, a man from Jinshui of Zhengzhou, died of cervical vertebra breaking after being hit by one who committed suicide, when he unloaded the cargo at one community. Sun’s family sued many people, including property company of this community. Finally, the court held that the defendant property company had allowed other outsiders to enter its management site without registering and checking, had failed to conduct proper check, had certain liability for the occurrence of the accident, and shall assume 20% of the infringed ‘s family member loss as supplementary liability.
The judge’s decision was based on the tort liability law, ‘...Where damage is caused to others by the third party act, the third party shall be liable for the infringement; if the manager or the organizer fails to fulfill the security obligation, they shall assume the corresponding supplementary obligations. Similarly, Li committed suicide in the apartment and caused others death. The apartment hotel, as the manager of the public place, should assume the supplementary responsibility if it fails to fulfill the security obligation. As for whether the apartment hotel has performed the security duty or not, that needs further investigation and evidence. For example, whether the window of the apartment hotel could allow one person to drill out, whether the roof door of the hotel’s top floor was locked, and whether the hotel’s stuff had found that Li wanted to kill himself, these may be used to judge whether the hotel had fulfilled security obligation.
One is the only daughter with much love in her family and one is the hope of his family, whose sudden death make both their relatives and us sad. As Joan baez said, ‘You can't choose how to die, when to die, but you have to choose how to live.’ Everyone has different life, but respecting and cherishing our life is what we everyone should do.
