Man in China fined $750 for reclining his train seat

The Xiangyin County People's Court in Hunan ruled both parties were partly responsible for what happened. Photo / NZHerald

To recline or not to recline (and by how much)? That is the question. One seemingly answered in China, where a train traveller has been fined for leaning back too far.

A man has been fined after leaning his seat back too far on a train to Wuhan in March 2022, according to court documents released in November.

While leaning your seat back isn’t a crime in China’s Hunan province, where the incident took place, this traveller leaned back into the new laptop of a passenger behind him.

A university student, identified in the documents by his last name, Wang, was using his new laptop on the seat-back table when the passenger in front of him, named Liu, reclined the seat into the laptop, breaking the screen.

After travelling to a police station to report the incident and later getting the laptop repaired, Wang sued Liu RMB 4788.50 (NZ$1075) to cover the costs.

So, who was at fault? According to the Xiangyin County People’s Court in Hunan, both parties shared the responsibility. As the person reclining, Liu was considered more at fault and the court pointed to posters in the train that asked passengers to look behind them before reclining. However, it claimed Wang should have been more cautious with his new laptop too.

Following the decision, Liu was ordered to pay 70 per cent of the amount Wang sued for; RMB 3341.45 (NZ$750).

This isn’t the first time a generous recline has caused damage to a passengers laptop. In February 2020, an American traveller shared his experience of a passenger fully reclining their seat and crushing the screen of his Apple Mac laptop.

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While most feuds over seat reclining don’t lead to broken laptops and court cases, it remains a contentious topic amongst travellers. Even celebrities aren’t spared from the issue, with Hilary Barry leaning into the debate earlier this year.

However, as train trips are encouraged over short-haul flights, we may see more people questioning how far is too far when it comes to reclining a train seat.