Chinese Court Orders Courier Company to Pay in Teen's Fatal Fall Case

A court in northwest China has ordered a courier company to pay 96,747.25 yuan (US$14,500) to the parents of a 15-year-old girl who died after falling from a fifth-floor apartment while throwing a return package downstairs.

The Guyuan Intermediate People's Court in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region issued the ruling on September 20, finding that the courier, the company, the girl's mother and the teenager each bore some responsibility, according to a report by Beijing Daily. The company was assigned 30 percent of the liability.

The girl, surnamed Ma, was asked by her mother, Zhang, to throw a pair of jeans downstairs for pickup. The courier, Liu, had agreed to collect the parcel that way and did not clearly refuse or warn the family about the danger, the court found. Ma fell while throwing the package and later died despite medical treatment.

The court said Zhang, as Ma’s guardian, bore primary responsibility for instructing her daughter to carry out the dangerous act.

Ma, 15, had stood on a tatami platform while throwing the parcel downstairs and fell in the process. The court said she also failed to take reasonable care for her own safety.

The courier had not fulfilled his pickup duties with reasonable care, while the company was responsible for training and managing its staff, according to the ruling.

The company had paid the parents 200,000 yuan under an agreement in December 2025. A first-instance court previously ordered it to pay 211,323.08 yuan in total, leaving 11,323.08 yuan after that payment. The parents appealed, arguing in part that the compensation calculation was wrong.

The intermediate court upheld the 30 percent allocation of responsibility but revised the amount owed. It ordered the company to pay 296,747.25 yuan in total.