萬國法律事務所

The Taichung High Administrative Court (Court) ruled in January 2014 that the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) illegally expropriated land in Dapu and illegally demolished four private houses thereon, which belonged to four families. The Court ruled that the Government must reverse the expropriation and return the expropriated lands to the families. The MOI may appeal this judgment.

Plaintiff families argued that as the four private houses had been demolished, they will consider applying for State Compensation for thier illegally demolished houses.

MOI has indicated that it will request the Miaoli Government, which requested such land, to submit an explanation regarding the judgment and MOI will carefully consider the following steps, including whether to file an appeal or to provide State Compensation. The Deputy Minister of MOI stated that the Court only partially reversed the expropriation in Dapu and that it is unnecessary to entirely reject the needed public benefit expected to result from the Dapu expropriation.

The Deputy Minister further asserted that land expropriation is necessary in order to proceed with important national projects, such as the Taiwan High Speed Rail and Mass Rapid Transit constructions, which are possible only by means of land expropriation.