Decision of the Court of Appeals in Wroclaw 1st Civil Division of 27th June 2017
I ACa 1735/16
- 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.
- 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.
The Court of Appeals in Wroclaw 1st Civil Division in the following ruling bench:
The Chairman: Aleksandra Marszałek, Court of Appeals Judge
The Judges: Jan Gibiec, Court of Appeals Judge; Tadeusz Nowakowski, Court of Appeals Judge (rapporteur)
having examined on 14 June 2017 in Wrocław at a hearing the case filed by K.K (1) – a representative of a group of residents of: (…) (…) against the Municipality of K. – the President of the City of K. and the Poviat of K – S.K. for ascertainment following the Claimant’s appeal against the judgment of the Regional Court in Opole dated 11 August 2016, file. Ref. no. I C 123/14,
decided to:
- dismiss the case;
- desist from charging the costs of the appeal proceedings to the Claimant.
