Judge evicts family and their coffin

The Taipei District Court yesterday ordered a construction team to tear down a townhouse on Taipei City's Kangting Road, and to remove the coffin within.

At 9am yesterday, Taipei Judge Cheng Li-yan (鄭麗燕) led the team of workers and police officers from the Wanhua Precinct to the residence, which has been illegally occupied by the Chen family for 50 years.

First, the construction team removed a coffin that contains the remains of Chen Yueh-nien's (陳月年) mother from the living room and then began demolishing the structure, which is located on land owned by the Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行).

Chen Yueh-nien and her younger brother Chen Cheng-chen (陳誠禎) were still living at the address with their mother's body when the police arrived.

According to Cheng, the Chens filed a suit against the bank in 1986 to establish ownership of the land.

The court decided that the 100-ping area belonged to the bank and the Chens would have to move out of the building.

The Chens ignored the court's decision.

According to Cheng, in 1995, after Chen Yueh-nien's mother passed away, the Chens decided to store her coffin in the living room to block the court's eviction order.

"When the neighbors came to complain, the two would tell them that they were still looking for an ideal site to bury their mother," said Cheng.

"Actually, they were just trying to frighten anyone who might show up to carry out the court's order."

Cheng was planning to carry out the order last August, but the family filed an appeal before the court could serve the eviction notice.

The court held another trial to establish ownership last December and again decided that the land occupied by the Chens belongs to the bank.

Workers have relocated the coffin to Taipei's First Municipal Morgue.

"The Chen Family is supposed to pay the maintenance fee at the morgue and is supposed to remove the coffin within a month," Cheng added.

"If they don't, the morgue will cremate the body and ask them to pay the fee."

Chen Cheng-chen said that the family has lived at the address since 1952.

He added that they met with bank officials many times over the last year to negotiate if they could lease or buy the land instead of occupying it illegally.

"We have been living here for five decades and feel that this is our home," he said.

"We are able to buy the land and we tried to fight for our home," he said.

"I don't understand why they [the bank] keep refusing to let us live here or why they insist on expelling us from our home," he said.