The long-running dispute that pitted a Taipei family against a major construction company and the Taipei City Government and led to large protests, appeared to have come to an end yesterday, after the family announced it had accepted an out-of-court settlement and was dropping its civil suit against the firm.
The surprise announcement came as the Taiwan High Court opened a hearing on the civil case brought by the Wang (王) family against Le Young Construction Co (樂揚建設) over the Wenlin Yuan (文林苑) urban renewal project.
The family said they have signed a “settlement statement” with Le Young, would drop their lawsuit and would cooperate with the planned 15-story apartment complex in Shilin District (士林) on land where their home once stood.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
However, the family’s decision to compromise appeared grudging, as they said they could not bear the pressures coming in from all sides, and that as ordinary citizens they were like “little shrimps trying to fight a big whale.”
“Today is the day for our family and Le Young Construction Co to settle this court case, after several years of legal proceedings. We want to thank the many people who have helped us through this time,” the family said in a statement.
“Because ‘little shrimps are powerless when fighting against a big whale’ (小蝦米無力對抗大鯨魚), we yearn to live in peace and quiet, and with the other pressures on us; we had to choose compromise,” the statement said.
“In such a situation and without much of a choice, today we finally reached this end. Despite the many difficulties along the way, because of the assistance we received from so many people, we were able to persist and keep up the fight to this point,” they said.
The city government approved the Wenlin Yuan project in 1999 and the apartment complex was originally scheduled to be completed next year.
The Wang family was the only household out of the 36 affected by the development that refused to agree to the project.
Their long-running battle against the city and the company, which was taken up by social activist groups and others, intensified when their townhouses were demolished on March 28, 2012, on the orders of the city government.
The family erected a container house on the site to hinder construction and filed suits against the city and Le Young.
They lost the case in the first ruling by the Taipei High Administrative Court in December last year, with the judge upholding the legitimacy of the city’s demolition actions, in citing the Urban Renewal Act (都市更新條例), and dismissing the family’s request to rebuild their homes separate from the high-rise.
The family appealed the ruling.
However, on March 14, Wang Yao-te (王耀德), the son of Wang Kuang-shu (王廣樹), who owned the townhouses, flattened the temporary unit, much to the shock of the rest of the family.
Le Young workers immediately fenced off the land, triggering scuffles between the workers, security guards, Wang family members and their supporters.
A day later Wang Kuang-shu announced that he and other family members would continue their legal battles.
Outside the court yesterday, he told reporters: “This is a reluctant compromise by us.”
Chan Shun-kui (詹順貴), the family’s lawyer, added that lawsuit against city government would also be dropped, so the Wenlin Yuan case will finally be closed.
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