Case law > Decision of the Court of Appeals in Warsaw 1st Civil Division of 10th March 2016

Decision of the Court of Appeals in Warsaw 1st Civil Division of 10th March 2016
I ACz 91/16

  1. In order to initiate group proceedings it is enough if basic circumstances of the case constituting the factual basis of the claim, are equal towards a sufficient number of parties. The analogy of all circumstances constituting the factual basis of claims of individual group members is not an absolute requirement..
  2. In order to assess the admissibility of the statement of claim it is not important that the requests are derived from five formally different standard templates. The fundamental circumstance determining admissibility of group proceedings is the identicalness of the mechanism introduced by all these templates.
  3. The differences in templates towards individual group members as well as the difference in circumstances of conclusion of each of the contracts, or differences in knowledge and life experience of each member of the group may not preclude an assumption that claims arte fit to be examined in group proceedings. That is simply because they have been based not on the same factual basis but on an equal factual basis in the meaning of Article 1 (1) of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings.
  4. The question of legal interest from Article 189 CCP is of significance at assessment of the validity of the statement of claims, it constitutes a premise for the claim to be allowed, therefore, it may not be anticipated for the needs of the decision on the very admissibility of group proceedings.

Court of Appeals in Warsaw 1st Civil Division, in the following ruling bench:

Presiding Judge: Marzena Konsek-Bitkowska, Court of Appeals Judge (rapporteur)

Judges: Zbigniew Cendrowski, Court of Appeals Judge; Dorota Markiewicz, Court of Appeals Judge

having examined on 10th March 2016 in Warsaw at the hearing in camera the case filed by the Municipal Consumer Ombudsman in S. acting as a group representative of the group consisting of (names of group members) against (…) joint stock company in W. for ascertainment, following the Claimant’s complaint against the decision of the Regional Court in Warsaw dated 23rd October 2015, file ref. no. II C 269/15

decides to:

  1. correct the obvious mistake in the introduction of the contested decision as follows: to indicated indicate 23rd October 2015 as the date of issuance of the decision
  2. amend the contested decision to hear the case in group proceedings.