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Drone controllable

Natural wind is uncontrollable

Garlic next door damaged

A gust of east wind stirs up waves in the neighborhood

Herbicides damage crops

Responsibility dispute

Chai Mu (pseudonym), Zhang Chang (pseudonym) and Guo Xiang (pseudonym) are villagers from the same village. The land contracted by both parties is adjacent. Chai Mu's land is to the east of Zhang Chang and Guo Xiang's land. Chai Mu grows garlic, while Zhang Chang and Guo Xiang grow wheat. In March 2023, Zhang Chang and Guo Xiang commissioned Company A to use drones to spray herbicides on the wheat they planted. Zhang Chang and Guo Xiang provided the pesticides and paid about 4.5 yuan per mu. On the same day, Zhang Chang led the operator to his own land. However, due to the weather and wind direction, some herbicides drifted onto the garlic planted by Chai Mu. Afterwards, some garlic turned yellow and had rotten roots. The garlic in the neighboring wheat fields was affected from near to far, and the symptoms of damage ranged from severe to mild. The garlic stalks could not be sold because they were contaminated with pesticides.

In May 2023, Chaimu applied to the notary office in the county town for evidence preservation of the current status of the garlic field. According to the notarized video, the garlic field affected by Chaimu is about 98 meters long from north to south and about 82.4 meters long from east to west. According to the meteorological certificate issued by the local meteorological station, there was indeed a level 4 easterly wind on the day when the drone sprayed the herbs. Later, Chaimu dug out the garlic from the severely damaged garlic field and sold more than 7,200 kilograms of damaged garlic in June 2023, with a total of more than 22,000 yuan.

Therefore, Chai Mu filed a lawsuit with the court, claiming that the defendants Zhang Mu, Guo Xiang, Company A and Qi (the only natural person shareholder of Company A) needed to compensate for the loss of his garlic sprouts and garlic.

Court: The orderer and the contractor shall bear the liability for compensation

1. Is there a causal relationship between the damage to the garlic planted by the plaintiff and the defendant’s act of spraying herbicides?

After the trial, the court held that after the defendant Company A sprayed herbicides on the wheat planted by the defendants Zhang Chang and Guo Xiang through drones in the presence of a level 4 easterly wind, the garlic planted by the plaintiff turned yellow and had root rot, and the symptoms gradually eased from east to west, becoming more serious the closer to the wheat planted by Zhang Chang and Guo Xiang. Taking into account the temporal sequence of the spraying of herbicides and the results of the garlic turning yellow and rotten, as well as the medicinal properties of the herbicides, it is highly likely that the damage to the garlic planted by the plaintiff was causally related to the spraying of herbicides by the defendant Company A on the wheat field. The amount of damage to the plaintiff's garlic was determined based on the area of ​​damaged garlic, yield per mu, and market price, with a total loss of more than 60,000 yuan.

2. How to determine the subject of liability compensation?

In this case, the defendant Company A used drones to spray herbicides on the wheat planted by Zhang Chang and Guo Xiang, and Zhang Chang and Guo Xiang paid fees based on the number of acres sprayed. The relationship between the two parties meets the characteristics of a legal relationship in a contract for undertaking. As the orderer who instructed others to use drones to spray pesticides on their crops, the defendants Zhang Chang and Guo Xiang should evaluate the possibility of the herbicide causing damage to the crops in the neighboring land when using the herbicide, and avoid the designated boundary of the drone operation being too close to the neighboring land, causing damage to the crops in the neighboring land. They failed to fulfill this obligation and were at fault in their instructions, and should bear corresponding liability for the plaintiff's garlic losses.

The contractor, defendant Company A, as the operator of the drone, did not consider the 4-level easterly wind when spraying herbicides for defendants Zhang Chang and Guo Xiang. The evidence it provided in this case could not prove that the drone maintained a safe operating altitude and reserved a safe distance from the plaintiff's garlic field during the spraying of herbicides. Therefore, it was also at fault for the damage to the plaintiff's garlic and should bear the liability for compensation. Defendant Qi, as the only natural person shareholder of defendant Company A, should bear joint and several liability for the debts of Company A.

3. What is the proportion of compensation that each defendant should bear?

Taking into account the factors that the plaintiff's input costs such as manual labor and daily management after the garlic was damaged were reduced, the plaintiff was determined to bear 20% of the liability; the defendants Zhang Chang and Guo Xiang were to bear 50% of the compensation liability, totaling more than 30,000 yuan; the defendant Company A and Qi (the company's only natural person shareholder) were to bear 30% of the compensation liability jointly, totaling more than 18,000 yuan.

After the verdict, the judge explained the law to both parties, and both parties accepted the verdict and stopped the litigation.

Judge: Clients should avoid giving improper instructions

The contractor should take safety precautions

In agricultural production activities, spraying pesticides and herbicides requires extreme caution. For the orderer, when instructing others to spray pesticides on crops, it is necessary to assess in advance whether the drugs used will cause damage to neighboring crops, and fully consider factors such as the operating boundary distance to avoid legal liability due to improper instructions. For the contractor, when operating a drone to spray herbicides, it is necessary to pay close attention to weather conditions, reserve a safe distance and operating height, and make full risk assessments and safety precautions.

Source: Official account @Wuzhi Court