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  • Interpretation
  • No.227【Under Translation】
  • Date
  • 1988/06/17
  • Issue
    • Is the guarantor in a transaction punishable as the subject of the offence specified by Article 38 of the Act of Secured Transactions for Movable Property?
  • Holding
    •        The subject of the offense specified in Article 38 of the Act of Secured Transactions for Movable Property is the debtor in a Secured Transaction and does not include the guarantor in such a transaction.
  • Reasoning
    •        A transaction concluded under the Act of Secured Transactions for Movable Property is a formal act and must be put down in writing in the form of a contract, with such particulars as are required to be stated in an agreement of chattel mortgage, conditional sale, or trust receipt, as the case may be, by explicit provisions set forth in Article 5, 16 or 33 of said Act. The question about which party is the debtor in a particular transaction is determined by examining the details of the contract. A guaranty agreement, on the other hand, is an accessory contract between the creditor and a third party, and does not constitute a formal act. While the guarantor does have an obligation based on the guaranty, his obligation is secondary to the guaranteed obligation, and he has a legal status distinct from that of the debtor. Article 38 of the Act of Secured Transactions for Movable Property provides: "A debtor in a Secured Transaction for Movable Property who, in the attempt to gain illegal profits, moves away, sells, pledges, transfers, creates a mortgage on, or otherwise disposes of the subject matter of the transaction, thereby causing damage to the creditor, is punishable with imprisonment of not more than three years or detention or, in lieu thereof or in addition thereto, a fine of not more than 6,000 yin-yuan. "Inasmuch as the law specifically limits the subject of the offense to the debtor, rather than including third persons as the subjects of the offense under Articles 39 and 40 of the same Act, the offense specified in Article 38 is obviously one that may be established only if it is based upon the special relationship of the debtor, and the law is certainly not intended to include the guarantor, who, unless being found to have acted jointly with, incited, or assisted the debtor in committing such an offense and is for that reason punishable as a joint offender under Article 31, Paragraph 1, of the Criminal Code, may not, by himself alone, be the subject of such offense.  
      
    • *Translated by Raymond T. Chu.
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