Decision Court of Appeals in Warsaw 6th Civil Division of 23rd September 2015
VI ACz 1117/15

1. The issue of the injured parties’ contribution in causing the damage cannot be classified as a factual circumstance, which is to justify the existence of premises of the defendant’s liability for damages.
2. Even if the examination of the contribution plea in the further stage of proceedings could lead to establishing and assessing the factual circumstances, individualised and different for each group member, it may not be regarded as not proving, by the claimant, of the fulfilment of the premise contained in Article 1 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings. If the basis for assessment of the admissibility of group proceeding is the content of the statement of claims, then the view on the inadmissibility of group proceedings cannot be based on the lack of the identity of circumstances, which were not included in the statement of claims, as they are not the basis of the pursued claim, but the basis of opponent’s defence.
3. The requirement of the identical factual basis of claim does not mean that all the circumstances have to be identical for each group member, because in any case – even when there is the same basis of claim – there are individual circumstances, relative for particular group members. The requirement of an identical factual basis is fulfilled when facts justifying the existence of a particular legal relation, which is the basis of the claims, are identical for all group members.
4. The assessment as to whether one can hold the defendant liable for damage compensation on the basis of circumstances indicated by the claimant, is not the part of the examination of the group proceedings’ admissibility, but is the result of examining the merits of the case. The lack of circumstances on the basis of which one can hold the defendant liable should lead to the claim’s dismissal.
5. The examination of the case as group proceedings does not mean that the verdict will be identical in relation to all group members.
6. The only criterion of affiliation to the particular subgroup is the amount of the pecuniary claim pursued in the group proceedings, established on the basis of a common factual basis. In view that the damage, the compensation of which is pursued by group members, is the loss of invested financial resources, it is possible to recognize the amount of the damage as the common factual basis, within the meaning of Article 2 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings, and on the basis of such criterion to equalize the claims in subgroups.