Decision of the Supreme Court of 18th September 2015
I CSK 672/14

1. The entities concerned may express a will to participate in a group proceedings in two ways. Firstly, they may become part of the so-called initiating group, on whose behalf the group representative files a statement of claims including a motion for examining the case in group proceedings. Secondly, they may join the group proceedings already after issuing by the court a decision on examining the case in group proceedings and publishing by the court an announcement on commencement of the group proceedings.
2. The declarations of group members on joining the group, mentioned in Article 6.2 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings, are not the basis, autonomous and independent of the statement of claims, for the establishment of the object and admissibility of the group proceedings by the court.
3. Any substantive and procedural law effects of initiating a group proceedings arise on the date on which the statement of claims along with attachments is filed, hence a date on the group members’ declaration on joining the group and consenting for a specific person to act in the capacity of the group representative subsequently attached to the statement of claims is of no significance.
4. From the location of Article 12 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings it follows that the declaration on joining the group specified in this provision is filed by entities who did not participate in the preparation of the statement of claims, but having acquired the knowledge from an announcement or other sources want to join the group and obtain a legal protection of their claim in the frames of group proceedings.
5. A declaration on joining the group filed after issuing by the court the decision on examining the case in group proceedings and publishing by the court an announcement on commencement of the group proceedings constitutes expression, autonomous and independent of the statement of claims, of a specific individual’s will to participate in group proceedings, hence it must include the components allowing [the court] to assess whether the claim of a candidate for participation in the group may be examined in these proceedings. This declaration is filed not to the court but to the claimant (group representative).
6. The procedural law effects of a declaration on joining the group, mentioned in Article 12 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings occur therefore at a different moment than the law effects of filing a statement of claims. At the moment the claimant (group representative) submits to the court the declarations on joining the group and the list of entities who have joined the group, a status of a case pending between these entities and the defendant concerning the claim being the subject of this group proceedings arises and, furthermore, it is at this moment that the course of limitation of claims of entities joining the group is interrupted (Article 123 par. 1 point 1 of the CCP).
7. Declarations attached to the statement of claims originating from the initiating group do not have to contain all the obligatory elements of the statement of claims and the declaration on the existence of circumstances substantiating the examining of a demand raised in group proceedings. The said declarations do not exist autonomously and do not shape the object of the group proceedings, but are aimed at identifying members of the initiating group by demonstrating therein a will to participate in a group represented by an appointed person who files the statement of claims.