The Regional Court in Szczecin, 1st Civil Division in the following ruling bench:

Presiding Judge:       Wojciech Machnicki (rapporteur), Regional Court Judge

Judges:                        Katarzyna Krasny, Regional Court Judge; Renata Tarnowska, Regional Court Judge

having examined on 8th September 2017 in Szczecin at a hearing of the case filed by K. P. – the representative of the group composed of the following participants: (…) against the State Treasury – (…) and (…)

1. In the event of the death of a member of a group involved in the group proceedings, the court is ex officio obligated to issue an appropriate procedural decision. The party’s request to change the decision on the group composition should be treated as information about the death of the group member.
2. Article 174 (1) (1) of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure applies to group proceedings, but only The application thereof should be adapted to distinctiveness from the provisions of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings, which constitute the specificity of the group proceedings.
3. Although there are no obstacles to apply Article 174 of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure directly to the defendant’s situation, the application of the provision in question to the claimant must take into account the specificity of the claimant party’s organization. The scope of application of that provision will be different in relation to a group representative, and different to a group member.
4. Article 174 (1) (1) of the Polish Code of Civil Procedure does not apply to a group member – in that case legal succession and replacing the deceased by his legal successor are not allowed. In such a situation, it is necessary to eliminate the deceased group member from the proceedings and the proceedings are continued with reduced group composition if – which circumstance did not occur in the present proceedings – the number of group members does not fall below the statutory limit, i.e. 10 persons (Article 1 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings).

1. The term “claim” within the meaning of Article 1 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings means the demand of the statement of claims.

1. The standardization of claims means that the claims at the identical amount for all group members are pursued in group proceedings. The discrepancies between the value of the claims are admissible exclusively by application of the institution of subgroups: members of the same subgroup pursue claims of identical value, whereas the value of claims may be different in the case of different subgroups.
2. If the pecuniary claims are pursued in group proceedings, the group members must agree that the due compensation will be determined in a lump sum. It means that the compensation will be standardized and the group members will resign from the possibility of pursuing the claims individually and obtaining satisfaction of the claims within the broader scope.
3. The consent for the standardization of claims must be expressed by all group members.
4. The list of the group members with the declarations attached, at the moment of filing it in the court is considered to be a specific type of procedural letter. In case of discrepancies within the list, the court is entitled to request the group representative for correction or refuse to include particular parties in the decision on composition of the group.
5. The lack of the date on the group member’s declaration of intent to join the group does not affect the credibility of the declaration.

The Regional Court in Warsaw 16^th Commercial Division in the following ruling bench:

Presiding Judge:     Maria Zgiet–Zawadzka, Regional Court Judge

Judges:                     Jan Wawrowski, Regional Court Judge, Katarzyna Bartosiewicz, Regional Court Judge

having examined on 3^rd July 2017 in Warsaw at the hearing in camera the case filed by (…) and (…) C.A. Ltd in W. against (…) Society (…) joint stock company in W. for compensation

1. The provision of Article 417 CC regulates the liability of the State Treasury and local government units for damage caused by an unlawful action or omission while exercising public authority. The liability should be understood very strictly in this case. It should be construed as any behavior against orders or bans. However, it does not encompass the ethical norms and principles of community coexistence. Hence, what we are dealing with hereby is rather non-compliance with constitutional sources of law such as the Constitution, statutes, ratified international agreements, and regulations and the law of the European Union. A failure systematic to systematically update emergency plans’ should be treated as unlawful act under Article 417 CC.
2. The judgment rendered under Article 2.3 of the Act of 17 December 2009 on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings should be regarded a precedent in any individual cases in future. In such individual cases, the court will assess circumstances of a specific case, such as occurrence of damage, amount of damage, provided that these circumstances are related only to the individuals and not to the entire group.

1. A declaration on joining the group may be submitted before the announcement on the opening of group proceedings is published, nevertheless in order to be legally valid it needs to be served on the representative of the group only. Serving such a declaration to the court is legally invalid.
2. The Polish Act on Pursing Claims in Group Proceedings of 17^th December 2009 does not determine who a declaration on leaving the group is to be served to. Taking into account the per analogiam reasoning and the fact that a group member is not a subject in group proceedings, it can be concluded that such a declaration should be served onto the representative of the group. Such a conclusion, nevertheless, seems to restrict the liberty of deciding on being a member of the group. The Act does not impose any duties on the representative of the group in respect of leaving the group by an individual member, in particular it does not obligate him to accept or control, or transfer such declarations to court. Conditioning the legal validity of such a declaration on whether the representative transfers the declaration to the court would be absolutely pointless and artificial. Thus a declaration on leaving the group shall be served upon court so that the court takes it into account when rendering the decision on the group membership.
3. A declaration on joining the group, next to the elements listed in Article 12 of the Polish Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings, should include an indication of the person and their signature.

1. The mandatory representation by a professional counsel set out in Article 4 (4) of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings means that the solely the group representative’s legal counsel who is an attorney-at-law or a legal counsel
2. has the capacity to engage in acts in law in the action. The requirement of mandatory representation by a professional counsel in such a situation is of an absolute nature which means that the group representative may not act in the case personally, but only through a professional counsel. Actions performed by the party will be ineffective.

1. The examination of group membership consists in comparing group members’ individual claims against the standard claim determined in the decision on examining the case in group proceedings.
2. At the first and second stage of the group proceedings, the defendant should not raise objections aimed at demonstrating illegitimacy of the claims pursued on behalf of the group members. This is because these issues are not the subject of the court’s attention at the first and second stage of a class action. The legitimacy of claims pursued on behalf of particular group members is examined at the third – substantive stage of group proceedings.
3. The division of group members into subgroups based only on the parameter of the amount of pursued claims is admissible.

The Regional Court in Warsaw 25^th Civil Division in the following ruling bench:

Krystyna Stawecka, Regional Court Judge

having examined on 31^st May 2017 in Warsaw at the hearing in camera in the group action filed by J. K. – group representative against Bank (…) S.A. in W. for payment