Nine Slaps, a Stroke, and a Court's 70% Verdict
A wage dispute in Zhengzhou, the capital of central China’s Henan province, ended with a man dead and his former employer ordered to pay more than 840,000 yuan (roughly $118,000). The Intermediate People’s Court in Zhengzhou published the second-instance ruling, dismissing the employer’s appeal and upholding a 70% share of liability for the worker’s death, according to the China Judgments Online database.
The facts, as summarized in the ruling, are spare. The worker, identified in court documents as Ma, was 59. On the afternoon of December 14, 2024, he met his employer, Qin, outside a residential building in Zhengzhou to argue over unpaid wages and a dismissal. The argument turned physical: Qin slapped Ma nine times. That evening, Ma was admitted to hospital with an acute cerebral infarction, a stroke caused by a blockage in blood flow to the brain. He remained unconscious for 14 months before he died.
His family sued Qin for more than 1.36 million yuan in damages. The first-instance court found Qin liable for 70% of the harm and ordered him to pay the family about 840,000 yuan in total losses. Qin appealed; the Zhengzhou Intermediate People’s Court rejected the appeal and let the judgment stand.
The legal question is not whether slapping someone is wrong, which is settled, but how far the consequences of a wrong can be stretched. Chinese tort law requires a showing of causation between conduct and harm. Courts routinely divide responsibility when both parties contribute to an outcome, and they rely on medical evidence to link an injury to an act. A 70% share implies the court accepted that the blows were a substantial factor in the stroke, while leaving 30% of the loss with Ma or with factors outside Qin’s control. The ruling does not, in the summary available, spell out the medical reasoning.
For employers, the practical message is blunt: a dispute over wages can become a personal liability far larger than the sum owed. For workers, the case shows that a physical confrontation can carry consequences that no one in the moment anticipates, and that proving the link between a blow and a later illness is now central to such claims.
The numbers also frame the stakes. The family sought 1.36 million yuan; the court awarded 840,000. Ma was 59, close to retirement age, and spent more than a year in a coma, a period that likely shaped the damages calculation for medical costs and lost income.
The broader context is that wage arrears remain a recurring friction point in China’s private economy, especially in small businesses and construction-adjacent trades, and disputes often escalate before they reach a courtroom. Most never do. This one did, and the judgment now sits in a public database for other courts and lawyers to cite.