Case law > Decision of the Court of Appeals in Kraków 1st Civil Division of 29th January 2015

Decision of the Court of Appeals in Kraków 1st Civil Division of 29th January 2015
I ACa 1558/14

  1. Article 417 of the Polish Civil Code applies when a damage occurs in connection with exercising public authority which extends to legal relationships where a local government unit appears in a superior position, simultaneously being capable of authoritatively shaping the rights and obligations of the other entity as well as applying the means of coercion in order to guarantee performance of these rights or obligations. It covers any and all actions connected with the exercise of public authority, including but not limited to factual acts, as well as individual decisions made in accordance with the specific procedure, e.g. decisions, orders.
  2. The scope of the sovereign capacity (imperium) and the proprietary capacity (dominium) is not strictly divided. It suffices to draw attention to the fact that actions taken within the proprietary capacity sometimes require authority stemming from the sovereign capacity setting the limits within which the commune may act.

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

Presiding Judge: Hanna Nowicka de Poraj, Court of Appeals Judge

Judges: Jerzy Bess Court of Appeals Judge; Robert Jurga, Court of Appeals Judge (rapporteur)

having examined on 29th of January 2015 at the hearing the case filed by A.K. as the group representative of the group consisting of (…) against the Municipality of S. for payment following the Claimants’ appeal against the decision of the Regional Court in Kraków dated 8th April 2014, file ref. no. I C 545/11,

decides to:

  1. dismiss the appeal,
  2. award the costs of the appeal proceedings in the amount of PLN 5,400 (five thousand four hundred zloty) from Claimant to the Municipality of S..