Article 208 of the Civil Code stipulates that the creation, alteration, transfer and termination of immovable property rights shall be registered in accordance with the provisions of the law. The creation and transfer of movable property rights shall be delivered in accordance with the provisions of law.
Article 224 stipulates that the creation and transfer of movable property rights shall take effect from the time of delivery, unless otherwise provided by law.
Article 226 stipulates that if the right holder is in possession of the movable property before the creation and transfer of the movable right, the real right shall take effect when the civil juristic act takes effect.
Based on the above legal provisions, the ownership and transfer of movable property rights shall take effect at the time of transfer and delivery, unless otherwise provided by laws and administrative regulations. After the transfer and delivery of movable property rights, the principle of "possession is ownership" is implemented. Money is movable property, whether in physical or virtual form, and its ownership becomes effective when it is transferred and delivered, after which the "possession is ownership" rule applies.
In May 2016, Yan from Wuhan subcontracted a project to the employer through a contractor. And signed the "Internal Contracting Agreement" with the employer, and paid the project quality deposit. When the contractor issued the receipt, it promised to return the deposit to Yan after the completion of the project.
After the completion of the project, the employer returned the first deposit of 200,000 yuan to Yan in June 2020. In June, when the contractor returned the second deposit of 500,000 yuan to Yan, the financial staff mistakenly remitted the money to the contractor's account. At this time, the contractor was being executed by the court, and the court immediately deducted 360,000 yuan of it to the creditor.
Yan filed an enforcement objection with the court, demanding a refund of the 360,000 yuan that had been executed, but the court ruled to reject the application. Yan immediately filed a lawsuit against the contractor and a machinery company applying for execution, and sued the court to request that the 360,000 yuan deducted from the contractor's account to a machinery company be returned to him.
The court of first instance held that, unless expressly provided by law or judicial interpretation, the ownership of movable property is "owned by whoever occupies it". Money is movable property, and whoever owns it has the ownership of it. The contractor has the ownership of the 500,000 yuan remitted to the contractor's account by the employer since the receipt of the account, and Yan and the employer do not enjoy the ownership of the 500,000 yuan.
Although the remittance from the employer to the contractor was a refundable security deposit and was a wrong remittance, after the erroneous remittance of this amount, Yan only had an ordinary claim of 500,000 yuan against the contractor, and after the 500,000 yuan was mistakenly remitted to the contractor by the employer, Yan only had an ordinary claim to the contractor, and the contractor should perform the payment obligation of the general debt. The court rejected Yan's request.
Yan appealed against the first-instance judgment, arguing that the 500,000 yuan that the contractor mistakenly remitted to the contractor was the project quality deposit delivered by himself to the contractor, which had the function of guarantee, and he should be compensated first.
After trial, the court of second instance held that the construction contract between Yan and the employer had been completed, the guarantee or guarantee function of the project warranty money had been realized, and had been converted into ordinary creditor's rights, and Yan did not have the priority right to be compensated for this paragraph, so it rejected the appeal and upheld the original judgment.
The court was right in this decision. Money itself has no property of ownership, and whoever takes possession of the money owns it. Even money obtained through criminal means should be "possessed as possessed". Money obtained only through criminal means can be recovered by law, and the money recovered by law is no longer the original coin. If the offender has no money to recover, the right of recovery can be extended.
For this reason, Yan can continue to request a refund from the contractor according to the nature of his creditor's rights, and if the employer does not agree to the refund, Yan can request the court to order the employer to refund the refundable warranty of 500,000 yuan through litigation procedures. After the court decision, if the contractor does not perform, it can be resolved through the enforcement procedure.
Because there is no legal basis for the employer to remit RMB 500,000 to the contractor, the employer may request the contractor to return the RMB 500,000, which is also a general creditor's right for the employer.
According to the above analysis and legal provisions, although the money mistakenly remitted to another person's account is not the true intention of the remitter, the ownership of the erroneously remitted money has been transferred to the party receiving the money, and the remitter cannot directly get back the money remitted. Unless there is a delay in the payment of the remittance, it is possible to return the money within 24 hours through the bank's delayed arrival management procedure. However, the premise of the original refund is that there are sufficient funds in the bank account of the party receiving the remittance, and the funds that have been remitted to the receiving account are not used.
After the occurrence of the wrong remittance, if the beneficiary receives the benefits of the wrong remittance because there is no legal basis, the beneficiary has unjust enrichment for the remitter, and the remitter may claim the right of return from the payee in accordance with the law. However, once the funds in the payee's account are forcibly deducted by the court, the remitter's claim for unjust enrichment cannot be realized immediately, and other ways should be followed.
In modern society, people generally use mobile payment and electronic payment methods, and this payment method has become a common means of payment and settlement between individuals, between individuals and enterprises, and between enterprises.
The author likes to use electronic banking to settle and pay, once the author remitted 5,000 yuan to Wang, during the operation, the finger mistakenly clicked to another person surnamed Wang on the mobile phone, and the 5,000 yuan was possessed by the payee. After the incident, the payee was unwilling to repay the loan and lived in a foreign country, and the cost of negotiation and litigation was not much different from the wrong remittance, which made it difficult for the author to take litigation measures for a while.
For another example, the author has set up fingerprint and face recognition payment methods on his mobile phone, and advertisements often pop up on his mobile phone, and wrong payment can occur if he is not careful. One day, the author popped up an advertisement of "Dan Bao Xin Tea" on his mobile phone during exercise, because of the arm swing and holding the mobile phone during the exercise, the mobile phone jumped out of the payment interface. The author looked at his mobile phone while running, and stretched out his finger to close the payment, but accidentally fell into the fingerprint recognition area, resulting in a successful payment.
After the incident, the author canceled the transaction through the return and refund procedure on the platform, and no loss was caused. On another occasion, the author mistakenly paid a sum of money for the purchase of school tools for his child in the same situation, and it was not until the goods were delivered that he found out that it was a wrong payment, resulting in the author buying the same product repeatedly. After this incident, the author deleted the settings of fingerprint payment and face payment on the mobile phone, and restored the password payment, and this wrong payment never happened again.
Because electronic payment means are prone to wrong payment, people must be cautious about using electronic payment, every time they make a payment, they must check the payment information, and then click to confirm when they are sure that it is accurate. If you don't reconcile your payment information, making a mistake can cause unnecessary losses and annoyance. Another way is to cancel or delete the face recognition payment and fingerprint payment settings, so that wrong payments will not occur again.