《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Court orders China Youth Corps’ eviction

REDUCED COMPENSATION: In upholding a High Court ruling, the Supreme Court only changed the amount of redress the group would be required to pay the state

By Yang Kuo-wen and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

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The China Youth Corps must vacate state-owned property on Taipei’s Songjiang Road that it has illegally occupied and pay the state NT$51.3 million （US$1.65 million） in compensation, the Supreme Court said yesterday as it upheld an earlier verdict.

The organization established its headquarters in the Chih Ching Building, occupying a total of 2,087 ping （6,899m2）, with offices in the first and second basements and the third to fifth floors.

It shares the building with the Central News Agency （CNA）, which occupies the sixth to eighth floors, and RSEA Engineering Co on the ninth to 14th floors.

The National Property Administration in 2010 took the corps to court on a charge of illegal occupation of state-owned property.

The government owns 60 percent of the building, which the corps had no right to occupy, the administration said in its suit, demanding compensation of NT$970,000 for each month the organization illegally occupied the property.

A first ruling recognized that the corps held 30 percent rights to use the building based on a Ministry of Education question-and-answer session regarding the building in 2000 and a special notice served by the Executive Yuan recognizing that the Chih Ching Building was built by RSEA Engineering in 1992 on land donated by the corps and CNA.

However, the High Court later said that while the Ministry of Education had agreed to lend the building to the corps for free following the organization’s separation from the Ministry of National Defense in 1969, there was no evidence that the Ministry of Education had agreed to a termination date for the agreement.

As the corps could not provide proof that it was legally entitled to occupy the space, the High Court ruled that its occupancy should be regarded as illegal and the space returned to the administration.

The organization appealed the High Court ruling to the Supreme Court, its final legal recourse, which upheld the verdict, making it final.

The Supreme Court’s only change to the verdict was the amount to be paid back to the state, reducing the administration’s requested figure of NT$970,000 per month to NT$760,000 per month, dating back to Aug. 5, 2011.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES