The complications of the trial gave Fang Qiqiang, the presiding judge, a headache.
The reason was that any ruling in this case would appear biased.
Or, from another perspective, any ruling would carry a certain risk.
That risk concerned the outcome of his ruling.
If he favored the plaintiff, he would have trouble answering to the defendant.
He would have even more trouble answering to Wang Xi'an's uncle.
If he favored the defendant, he would have to depart from the original contract and show a considerable degree of subjective bias to help the defendant achieve its objective.
That bias could very well give the plaintiff something to use against him.
Just as it had now: he had already applied the relevant legal provisions to reach a determination.
Yet the plaintiff had raised the issue of various priorities.
What could he do now?
He could only reach a ruling by relying on relevant rules that skirted the boundaries.
To be honest, in this case,
he had already done his best to balance the respective demands of both sides.
But...
Clearly,
both sides were somewhat dissatisfied with the compromise.
In fact, viewed from other angles, neither side accepted the compromise; each wanted an outcome that favored its own side more.
In response...
Fang Qiqiang struck the gavel and turned toward the plaintiff's seats.
"Plaintiff."
"You consider the court's earlier statement unreasonable. Your position is that this case should be decided under the national Seed Law."
"But this is within Southern Province..."
"Applying the provincial seed management regulations to this case is lawful."
"Regarding the statement just made by the plaintiff's counsel, I would like to ask the plaintiff: does using the provincial seed management regulations as the law governing this ruling violate any rules?"
"Can the Provincial Seed Management Regulations be used