Judgment of the Court of Appeals in Katowice 1st Civil Division of 24th April 2018
I ACa 1012/17

1. It is necessary to take into account the fact that group proceedings are conducted in the interest of a large number of persons connected only by ties corresponding to formal co-participation, and that the nature of the proceedings gives rise to the possibility of participation in groups of a significant number of persons. While in the event of the death of any person it would be necessary to suspend the proceedings each time, sometimes for a very long period of time, this would distort the sense of introducing provisions on group proceedings, one of the main objectives of which is the efficiency and speed of proceedings with the simultaneous accumulation of many individuals on the claimant side. Such situations are to be prevented by the institution of a group representative as a claimant acting on behalf of all members of the group, who continues to act in the process regardless of the death or loss of legal capacity of an individual member of the group.
2. The ‘appropriateness’ of application of Article 174(1)(1) CCP in relation to a group member who is not formally a party to the proceedings must take into account the objectives of group proceedings and the distinctiveness resulting from them. These, in turn, lead to the conclusion that in the case of a group member, after the final determination of the composition of the group, this provision is not applicable – in this case, procedural succession and replacement of the deceased by his legal successor is not allowed. In such a situation, it is necessary to eliminate such a member of the group from the proceedings and the proceedings are continued in a reduced composition, if – which circumstance did not occur on the grounds of these proceedings – the number of members of the group does not fall below the statutory minimum, that is 10 persons.