Judgment of the Court of Appeal in Szczecin, Civil Division I, dated May 23, 2018
I ACa 20/18

1. The granting of public aid could not be treated in the same way as cooperation between two legally equal economic entities (i.e., as a transaction subject to the principle of autonomy of will and freedom of contract). Making aid conditional on conditions not provided for in the law must therefore be treated as unlawful (aimed at circumventing the law).
2. It cannot be ruled out that the actions of public authorities consisting in indirectly influencing economic processes that interfere with the economic sphere of individuals and violate their rights under Articles 21 and 65 of the Polish Constitution will constitute an attempt to circumvent the limits of public authority’s competence under the Constitution or statutes and, as such, may give rise to liability for damages under Article 417 of the Civil Code in conjunction with Article 77 of the Constitution.
3. A shareholder suffers damage in the form of a loss in the value of shares (property rights) also in a situation where the harmful action directly affects the assets of a joint-stock company (causes damage to its assets). If the harmful action is related to the exercise of public authority, the shareholder’s claim arises on the basis of Article 77 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and Article 417 of the Civil Code.

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

Presiding Judge:           Krzysztof Górski (rep.)

Judges:                        Małgorzata Gawinek, Agnieszka Bednarek-Moraś

having examined on May 10, 2018, at a hearing in Szczecin, the case brought by K. P. – representative of a group consisting of the following members [data on 2,166 members of the group] 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 September 22, 2017, file ref. no. I C 762/12,

overturns the contested judgment 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.