A New Taipei City (新北市) resident has taken his uncle to court over injuries sustained from an altercation over chocolates. The plaintiff, surnamed Chiang (江), is in his 20s and resides in his uncle’s house, living on the second floor with his grandfather, while his uncle and his family live on the first floor.
The case stemmed from an incident in October last year in which Chiang said he bought a box of chocolates as a gift for a friend and put it in the refrigerator.
When he came home one day and found several pieces of chocolate missing from the gift box, Chiang said he suspected his uncle of eating the chocolates.
Chiang confronted his uncle by asking: “Did you act like a thief and eat my chocolate?”
His uncle insisted he did not.
Put off by the nephew’s rudeness and thinking it was disrespectful to question a family elder in such a manner, the uncle later ran up to the second floor and the two got into an altercation, during which the uncle allegedly grabbed Chiang. The altercation resulted in reddish welts on Chiang’s neck, chest, left forearm, right calf and right upper arm.
Although the injuries were very minor, Chiang went to court, alleging the uncle also threatened him, saying: “If you keep this up, we shall see what’s going to happen.”
At a recent court hearing, Chiang refused to withdraw the charge and continued to ask his uncle whether he had eaten the chocolates.
Despite repeated denials by his uncle, Chiang would not accept the answer, adding that he suspected his aunt might have eaten it.
“My nephew lives in my house. Even if I did eat the chocolate, does he need to treat me like this?” the uncle said, adding that it was because the nephew spoke to him disrespectfully that he confronted him.
According to prosecutors, although the uncle made remarks deemed by Chiang to be threatening, they were spoken in anger in response to the impudence shown by the nephew and did not constitute a real threat.
However, the prosecutors said the nephew had sustained minor injuries, so the uncle was charged with causing bodily harm.
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