Case law > Decision of the Court of Appeals in Krakow 1st Civil Division of 6 September 2017

Decision of the Court of Appeals in Krakow 1st Civil Division of 6 September 2017
I ACz 1231/17

  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).

Court of Appeals in Krakow 1st Civil Division with the following ruling bench:

Presiding Judge:             Paweł Rygiel, Court of Appeals Judge (rapporteur)

Judges:                             Barbara Górzanowska, Court of Appeals Judge;

                                           Jerzy Bess, Court of Appeals Judge

having examined on 6th September 2017 in Krakow at the hearing in camera the class action filed by Z. R. acting as the representative of the group consisting of: [data of group members] against the State Treasury – Voivode Ś., Director of the Regional Board for Water Management in K.; the Ś. Voivodeship; the S. Poviat.; the S. Municipality, for establishment,

following the complaint of the defendant State Treasury – Voivode Ś., Director of the Regional Board for Water Management in K., Voivode Ś. against the decision of the Regional Court in Krakow of 20th April 2017, file ref. no. I C 1419/10,

decides to:

  1. dismiss the complaint.