Case 4 – Xuling woods dispute

Location: The village office

Participants: The mediator (female, around age 40), the disputants— two villagers.

The Case:(https://www.daowen.com)

The conflict is about a fight over the ownership of a patch of woods.The male villager and the female villager’s woods are adjacent to each other.On the contract of land division, it is stated that the woods should be divided by a road running through the woods.Since the ruling was first issued, the old road has been supplemented by a newer footpath; so there are now two possible interpretations of this ruling.The female villager has just married into the village and her husband has gone to the city to work.She thinks that the new road should be the division line;however, the male villager thinks that the old road should be used as the division line.Both parties were injured after physical altercation regarding the issue.Lower level officials unsuccessfully tried to solve the issue before the case was brought to the village office.

The Mediation Session:

The mediator brings both parties in.After declaring why they are there and what kind of procedure they are using, she let each party air their view.She makes it clear that the division line should be the old road, and asks each party to compensate for the medical costs of the other party.The mediation then concerns itself with financial compensation by the female villager to the male villager with regard to the values of trees she felled on his property.After some negotiation, the male villager is willing to compensate the female a certain amount of money for her medical cost from the injury.An agreement is reached and the conflict is settled.