Judgment of the Court of Appeal in Szczecin, 1st Civil Division, dated November 14, 2022
I ACa 600/22

1. The jurisdiction and composition of the court are regulated in Article 3(1) and (2) of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Class Action Proceedings. It stipulates that class action proceedings fall within the jurisdiction of the district court and that the court hears the case in a panel of three professional judges. It should also be emphasized that Article 24(1) of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Class Action Proceedings indicates that only in matters not regulated by the Act shall the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure apply, with the exception of Articles 8, 117-124, Articles 194-196, Articles 204, 205, 2053 2 and 5, and Articles 425-50514.
2. Pursuant to Articles 47 § 3 and 31p.c., decisions outside the hearing are issued by a court composed of a single judge. Orders, on the other hand, are issued by the presiding judge. This scope is not separately regulated in the Act on the Pursuit of Claims in Class Proceedings, hence the court is entitled to act in the above-mentioned scope with a panel of one judge. However, this cannot be applied to adjudicating on the case.
3. Pursuant to Article 15 zzs(1) paragraph 1 point 4 of the Act of March 2, 2020 on special measures related to the prevention, counteracting, and combating of COVID-19, other infectious diseases and crisis situations caused by them during the period of an epidemic threat or epidemic state declared due to COVID-19 and within one year of the cancellation of the last of these, in cases heard in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, in the first and second instance, the court shall hear cases with a single judge; the president of the court may order that a case be heard by a panel of three judges if he or she considers it appropriate due to the particular complexity or precedent-setting nature of the case. This provision, as it establishes a different composition of the court than that in force outside the period of epidemic threat, should be interpreted narrowly, only to situations where the composition of the court is regulated by the Code of Civil Procedure. However, this is not the case in class action proceedings, as Article 3(2) in conjunction with Article 24(1) of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Class Action Proceedings regulates this issue separately, excluding the application of the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure in this respect.
4. Since the Act on Pursuing Claims in Class Action Proceedings explicitly provides for the case to be heard by a three-member panel of judges, a single judge cannot be considered competent, and proceedings conducted by an incompetent panel must be considered invalid.

The Court of Appeal in Szczecin, 1st Civil Division, composed of:

Presiding Judge: SSA Agnieszka Bednarek-Moraś (rep.)

Judges:                 SSA Krzysztof Górski, SSA Ryszard Iwankiewicz

having examined on November 14, 2022, at a closed session in Szczecin, the case brought by K. P. (1) – representative of a group consisting of the following members: [data of 2166 group members] against the State Treasury – Minister of Maritime Economy and Inland Navigation and Minister of Finance for payment,

as a result of the plaintiff’s appeal against the judgment of the Regional Court in Szczecin of December 21, 2021, file ref. no. I C 990/18,

overturns the contested judgment, dismisses the proceedings before the court of first instance in respect of the closed session of December 21, 2021, and refers the case back to the Regional Court in Szczecin for reconsideration, leaving it to that court to decide on the costs of the appeal proceedings.