Wreath error lands man in hot water

By Angela Xu  |   2008-11-20  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THE owner of a funeral home was ordered to pay a 1,000-yuan (US$146) compensation for sending a wreath to a woman who wasn't dead.

The owner, surnamed Wang, said that on February 9 a middle-aged woman came into his store and asked him to send a wreath to the home of a dead woman surnamed Chen who had lived in a residential community on Dalian Road. The woman asked Wang to write a somber couplet on the card in the name of residents of building No. 9 in the community.

Wang delivered the wreath, only to find that the woman surnamed Chen wasn't dead.

Chen told police she suspected the wreath had been sent maliciously by a neighbor surnamed Qiu, who had argued with her a few years ago. Chen filed a lawsuit against Qiu and Wang, asking them to pay 10,000 yuan in compensation for mental anguish.

The police showed Wang and his wife a line-up of pictures, and asked them to pick out the woman who had ordered the wreath, but they said they didn't recognize any of the women in the pictures.

Both Wang and Qiu appeared in the Hongkou Distirct People's Court yesterday. Wang told the court he now recognized Qiu and that she was the woman who had asked him to send the wreath. He said the responsibility should be taken by Qiu.

Qiu denied she had asked him to send the wreath. She said she had deliberately gone into Wang's store after the incident but Wang had failed to recognize her.

The court said there was not enough evidence to prove that Qiu had ordered the wreath. As Wang didn't record any client information, the court ruled he was responsible for Chen's loss of dignity.