The Regional Court in Gdańsk, 15th Civil Division, composed of:
Presiding Judge: SSO Joanna Baraniecka-Galińska
Judges: SSO Magdalena El-Hagin, SSO Agnieszka Piotrowska
having examined on October 25, 2021, in Gdańsk, in a closed session, the case brought by [data of 1 person] acting as a representative of a group against the Bank for payment,
decides:
to order the publication in the press of an announcement of the initiation of class action proceedings by requesting the publisher of the daily newspaper to publish the following announcement:
“Class action proceedings have been initiated before the Regional Court in Gdańsk, 15th Civil Division, pursuant to the Act of December 17, 2009, on the pursuit of claims in class action proceedings (consolidated text: Journal of Laws of 2020, item 446) against the Bank for payment, file reference number XV C 871/18. [Data of 1 person] as the representative of the group, requested that the defendant be ordered to pay specific amounts to the members of the subgroups as compensation for the damage caused by the defendant’s improper performance of its duties as depositary in relation to the fund operating under the name which led to a decrease in the value of the fund’s investment certificate from a nominal amount of PLN 97 to PLN 11.42, which was paid to the Fund’s participants after its liquidation on December 22, 2017.
The improper conduct took the form of actions involving a conflict of interest. According to the claimant, the defendant took these actions deliberately, together with the entity managing the Fund, i.e. […] (an indirect subsidiary of the defendant). Each member of the group purchased and paid for a certificate of the Fund’s investment series in the amount of PLN 97 per certificate and incurred the costs of issuing the certificates in the amount of up to PLN 3 per certificate. As a result of the liquidation of the Fund, each member of the group received PLN 11.42 per certificate as settlement. The compensation claimed on behalf of each member of the group was calculated as the product of the number of certificates held on the date of liquidation and the difference between the amount invested and the amount returned (PLN 100 – PLN 11.42). The claims of the group members were consolidated into 62 subgroups.
Any person whose claim may be covered by this class action may join the case by submitting a written statement of joining the group within a strict deadline of three months from the date of publication of this announcement and sending it to the group representative [details of 1 person], address for service: […].
Joining the group after the above deadline is not permitted.
Submitting a declaration of joining the group is tantamount to consenting to [name of person] acting as the group representative and to the rules of remuneration for the representative. The remuneration of the representative is calculated as the product of the number of investment certificates held by the group member and the amount of PLN 2 plus VAT in the case of joining the group before bringing an action against the Bank, PLN 2.50 plus VAT in the case of joining the group after the lawsuit has been filed and before the court has issued a decision to hear the case in group proceedings, PLN 3.00 plus VAT in the case of joining the group after the decision to hear the case in group proceedings has been issued and before the decision on the composition of the group has been issued, and is reduced by the remuneration paid to the Law Firm by the group member for the complaint to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. In the event of a final judgment in favor of a group member for a specific amount or the conclusion of a settlement for such an amount, the attorney shall be entitled to remuneration in the amount of 8% of that amount, reduced by the remuneration paid to the Law Firm by the group member for the complaint to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority.
A final judgment is binding on all members of the group, i.e. persons who, before the deadline specified in this announcement, send a signed statement of accession to the group representative and are included in the list drawn up by the claimant and subsequently in the statement specifying the composition of the group.”