Talking about this issue with Lao Dong Newspaper, lawyer Truong Van Tuan (Trang Sai Gon Law Office) said that according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 91 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code, the party opposing the request of the other party is obliged to collect, provide and submit documents and evidence to prove its point of view.
Therefore, if Hong Phuong's family requests the cancellation of documents related to the adoption due to suspicion of legality, Hong Loan needs to provide evidence to reject this request.
According to the lawyer, the adoption paper is an important document to establish legal relations between adoptive parents and adopted children. The loss of this document in the appellate trial phase may cause certain disadvantages for Hong Loan, because she cannot directly present original evidence to prove it in court.
However, lawyer Truong Van Tuan also emphasized that in legal practice, the loss of the original does not mean the complete loss of the legal value of the adoption relationship if Hong Loan has a real adoption certificate from the late artist Vu Linh.
Previously, during the first-instance trial, if Hong Loan had submitted a copy or photocopy that had been compared by the court with the original, this was still the basis for the court to consider. At the same time, at the first-instance stage, the parties participated in a public evidence hearing, if the plaintiff's side did not have an opinion or request for examination at that time, this is also considered a factor.
Regarding the handling direction, the lawyer said that according to legal regulations, adoption papers are usually issued by the commune-level People's Committee - where civil status registration is registered and stored in the civil status book. In case of loss, related people can contact this agency to request a copy extract from the original book. The copy issued from the civil status book has legal value equivalent to the original and can be used in the proceedings.
Regarding the issue of appraisal, lawyer Truong Van Tuan said that the appraisal of signatures or content does not necessarily have to be based on the original provided by the parties. The parties can request the court to request competent authorities such as the commune-level People's Committee to provide archived records, signatures or related documents in the registration book to serve the appraisal.
In case Hong Loan cannot provide an adoption certificate or alternative documents, the appellate court will resolve the case based on the evidence collected in the file. Clause 4, Article 91 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code stipulates that if the party cannot provide or does not provide sufficient evidence to prove it, the court will base on the existing documents to issue a ruling.
The lawyer also affirmed that if the previous adoption registration was legal and included in the civil status book, then requesting a re-issuance of a copy or extract would not change the legal nature of this relationship, nor would it affect her inheritance rights. But if it were the opposite, it could more or less cause Hong Loan to lose many rights.
Previously, in a petition sent to the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Loan stated that she had lost all documents, including documents related to the first-instance case to date. In particular, she also reported the loss of artist Vu Linh's adoption paper.
In addition, Hong Loan also stated that she asked the court for 15 days to search. However, up to now, she has not found an adoption certificate of artist Vu Linh.
