Decision of the Court of Appeals in Wroclaw 1st Civil Division of 27th December 2019
I ACz 2056/19
- At the stage of the proceedings regarding the admissibility of the group proceedings, the court only examines whether the premises for that admissibility such as: the homogeneity of the group members’ claims, similarity or identicalness of the factual basis of the group members’ claims, numerosity of the group, standardization of the pecuniary claims and the ability of the claims to be examined in group proceedings – are fulfilled.
- The requirement of a similar or identical factual basis does not mean that all the facts of each claim should be similar or identical. Group proceedings fulfill their functions if the group members’ claims are ‘typical’ or ‘representative’. Obviously, slight differences may appear between the individual basis of claims, but it is necessary for the relevant factual circumstances to justify the demand common for all claims.
- It is deemed to be sufficient that basic circumstances of group members’ cases, which may determine the very principle of the defendant’s liability, are similar.
- The jurisprudence emphasizes that a class action is treated as a whole and it is not possible to reject the claim as to some group members and to hear the case as to the others.
The Court of Appeals in Wroclaw 1st Civil Division with the following ruling bench:
Presiding judge: Iwona Biedroń, Court of Appeals Judge (rapporteur)
Judges: Anna Guzińska, Court of Appeals Judge
Grażyna Matuszek, Court of Appeals Judge
having examined on 27th December 2019 in Wroclaw at the hearing in camera the action filed by the Municipal Consumer Ombudsman in the Capital City of Warsaw (a group representative) against (…) Bank S.A. with its registered office in W. for the establishment of the defendant’s liability,
following the defendant’s complaint against the decision of the Regional Court in Wroclaw of 9th September 2019, file ref. no I C 976/17,
decides to:
dismiss the complaint.
