85-year-old man and the $700,000 debt that 'fell from the sky'

The image of the old man tremblingly saying "lawyer, save me" is something Mr. Nguyen Thanh Cong cannot forget.

"As the day of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court's trial approached, the 85-year-old Chinese man came to me with a plea, 'Lawyer, please help me. I never borrowed money from him. Please help me clarify this'," said lawyer Nguyen Thanh Cong (Director of Dong Phuong Law Company).

The Return of the Child

The story happened more than 40 years ago. The old man's house was on Tran Hung Dao Street, with a large open space in front, where poor children often gathered to play jump rope and hopscotch.

He lived alone and loved children, so he occasionally brought them cakes, water, and sometimes a few notebooks. Time passed, and he was still alone and had a woodworking workshop.

One morning in the early 1990s, a woman appeared in front of his house and greeted him warmly. He found out that she was an American Vietnamese who had returned to visit her homeland after many years of living abroad. She was also one of the children who used to come to his yard.

After many visits, she introduced her younger sister to a service that could help him legalize the family's house. He trusted her right away, but he never expected that one day he would have to appear in court over this matter.

He received a court summons with a notice that he owed the overseas Vietnamese woman up to 700,000 USD, with his signature.

Abnormalities from the loan note.

Irregularities from the loan note

"The old man came to me when the case was about to go to trial. At first glance, the case was quite simple, the debt collection petition was only one A4 page long, accompanied by a debt collection paper with the debtor's signature clearly written with a fairly complete list of words," said lawyer Cong.

However, because the trial date was so close, the lawyers did not have much time to learn more about the case. "The court ruled that we lost the case, forcing the old man to pay the above amount. However, we were determined not to be discouraged and appealed to the appellate court."

Reading the loan document carefully, the lawyer's professional experience told him "something was wrong". USD money was sent back to Vietnam regularly every month for nearly 15 years, why were there about 180 transactions but there was not a single piece of paper from the money transfer receipt or receipt.

Meanwhile, the old man was 70 years old at that time, single, had a furniture workshop, and very simple living needs. How could he spend several thousand dollars a month and continuously for many years? The two sides were not relatives, so why would a person halfway around the world regularly send money back like that?

The lender wrote the loan document with the intention of dividing the amount into several installments to legitimize the borrower’s spending needs and the lender’s ability to provide. However, they forgot the time when the overseas Vietnamese woman had extra money to send back to Vietnam to lend to her grandfather.

Because according to the loan papers, that was the first year when the girl first arrived in America - which is extremely unreasonable. After 1975, many Vietnamese immigrants to America had to plunge into a new life with thousands of difficulties to integrate. Without any economic foundation, the only way to survive and gradually stabilize life in a foreign land was to work really hard and plow hard.

"Eight books with hundreds of stories written by my own people about their early days of adjusting to life in America gave me a general and detailed view of immigrants," wrote lawyer Cong.

Keep the other person safe

Mr. Cong presented all of those unreasonable things as a basis at the appeal hearing. In the end, those efforts were recognized by the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City, which declared the entire first instance judgment null and void because many details and evidence had not been clarified.

"The appeal verdict made us feel relieved, giving us more time to consolidate solid evidence. I worked hard and combined with several trips to the US, so I accumulated quite a bit of important information. I gradually 'released' the woman's unfavorable information, hoping she would understand that falsifying evidence would cause many bad consequences for her in the country where she is currently residing," the lawyer shared.

Seemingly understanding this message, the overseas Vietnamese woman decided to withdraw her lawsuit.

The truth was revealed, the old man was able to relieve his anger and escape the debt that suddenly fell from the sky. More importantly, he regained his honor because in court (the lawyer representing the overseas Vietnamese woman explained that the loan of 700,000 USD was due to the two parties having an emotional relationship that was more than normal).

"My profession allows me to come into contact with many situations and identities. To the best of my ability, I have many times found the truth to clear my client's name; or sometimes just to clarify a sad story, a grievance that someone did not dare to tell. At that time, I felt like I had more strength and more interest in the profession," said lawyer Nguyen Thanh Cong.

According to Ho Chi Minh City Law