Legal consequences of signing someone else's name when trading in Vietnam

Typically, in the judgment 06/2018/DS-ST dated January 25, 2018 of the People's Court of Tan Uyen town, Binh Duong province, the first-instance trial of the deposit contract dispute between plaintiff Ms. Hoai T and defendant Ms. Nguyen Thanh Th. Specifically:

On April 21, 2017, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoai T and Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong N signed a deposit contract with the content that Ms. T deposited an amount of VND 70,000,000 (Seventy million VND) to secure the transfer of land area of 760.9 m2 in Binh Duong province. The transfer price is 1,750,000,000 (One billion seven hundred and fifty million dong). When signing the deposit contract, Ms. T gave Ms. N an amount of VND 70,000,000 (Seventy million VND).

However, on April 21, 2017, Mrs. N was sick and could not come to sign the contract with Ms. T, so Mrs. Nguyen Thanh Th, who is Ms. N's younger brother, signed for Ms. N on the deposit contract with Ms. T. Ms. Th signed the signature "N", the handwriting "Nguyen Thi Hong N" and the fingerprints in the deposit contract are all Ms. Th's signature, handwritten and fingerprinted. Ms. Th received 70,000,000 dong deposit from Ms. T and she did not give it back to Ms. N but used it all for medical treatment. Mrs. N knew about this."

The People's Court of Tan Uyen Town, Binh Duong province has applied the provisions of Clause 1, Article 117 of the Civil Code 2015 on the effective conditions for civil transactions, arguing that the deposit contract dated April 21 2017 between Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoai T and Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong N has no legal effect due to the wrong signatory. According to the provisions of Article 122 of the 2015 Civil Code, the deposit contract dated April 21, 2017 between Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoai T and Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong N is invalid.

Compared with the provisions of Clause 1, Article 117 of the 2015 Civil Code, the conditions for the validity of civil transactions are as follows:

Article 117. Conditions for effective civil transactions

1. A civil transaction shall be effective when it satisfies all of the following conditions:

a) Participants in the transaction have legal personality and/or legal capacity in conformity with such transaction;

b) Participants in the transaction act entirely voluntarily;

c) The purpose and contents of the transaction are not contrary to the law and/or social ethics.

Article 122. Invalid civil transactions

Civil transactions which fail to satisfy any one of the conditions specified in Article 117 of this Code shall be invalid

It can be seen that, the content of the deposit contract is a contract signed between Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong N and Ms. Nguyen Thi HT, in the deposit contract, there is no subject named Ms. Th in the contract. Therefore, although Ms. N knew that Ms. T had made a deposit and that Ms. Th had received the deposit, the fact that Ms. Th signed "N", the handwriting "Nguyen Thi Hong N", fingerprints violated the conditions of the contract subject. Ms. Th is not the subject of the contract. Ms. Th must pay Ms. T the amount of VND 70,000,000 as the judgment declared is appropriate.

Currently, there are no general regulations on deposit contracts or deposit papers. Deposit is a measure to ensure contract performance, so it is usually signed before signing the main contract. Deposit contract or deposit paper is also a civil transaction. Therefore, it only takes effect when there are all valid conditions of a civil transaction about the signatory, the content and the form of the contract.