A district court in Ho Chi Minh City has apologized to a disabled 63-year-old man who had to drag himself upstairs without aid to file a lawsuit last December.

According to a Tuoi Tre newspaper report, the People’s Court of District 4 admitted that it had not served the public properly. It promised to be more considerate in the future.

The incident caught public attention when it was reported by local media late last year.

An Van Chau, confined to a wheelchair for more than 30 years, was asked to submit his documents on the first floor on December 10, and was not assisted by any official of the court in getting there.

At the time Chau’s plight was exposed, Bui Hoang Danh, head judge of the city People’s Court, was cited by Tuoi Tre as saying that the officials in District 4 did not do anything wrong to Chau.

They’d asked him to wait downstairs, but he wanted to take the stairs himself, Danh had said.