A MAN in Bao’an District recently died of electric shock outside a rental house. The man’s relatives have turned against each other over his compensatory payment, the Shenzhen TV reported yesterday.

The police informed the man’s mother of his death, according to the report. Because of her old age and illness, his mother entrusted her daughter and son-in-law to come to Shenzhen from Henan Province to deal with the matter.

On Sept. 19, the man’s family signed a mediation agreement with the landlord. The latter transferred a compensation of more than 520,000 yuan (US$75,669) to the bank account of the man’s mother.

“I’m the mother of two children and the primary guardian of the children, but I know nothing about the compensation,” the man’s former wife surnamed Zhao was quoted as saying.

Zhao said she and her husband divorced in 2014 and each raised one of the daughters. After her ex-husband died, she also rushed to the city from Henan.

However, she was unable to participate in the whole process of mediation and compensation, and the mediation agreement was signed by her two underage daughters.

Zhao said her two daughters should each get a share of the compensation, but the money was instead directly transferred to the man’s mother without informing them.

According to the subdistrict office, the deceased’s mother had agreed to allocate the compensation after the funeral was finished. However, Zhao was dissatisfied and went to the community service station and the subdistrict office to appeal.

Officials said that Zhao’s suspicions do have a legal basis and that death compensation is generally inherited by the first successor in accordance with the law of succession.

If the guardian recognizes retroactively that the agreement is invalid and revocable, it is invalid and can be classified as a contract with pending validity, according to a lawyer named Wang Jinhui.

(Zhang Yu)