Case law > Judgment of the Regional Court in Warsaw, 25th Civil Division, dated 31st July 2019

Judgment of the Regional Court in Warsaw, 25th Civil Division, dated 31st July 2019
XXV C 250/18

  1. Since the legislator has provided for separate bases of liability for assistance (benefiting from the damage caused by another person), it means that the act of the assistant (benefiting from the damage) has been taken out of the general regulation of liability for one’s own act, provided for in Articles 415 and 416 of the Civil Code.
  2. In accordance with the model adopted by the Polish legislator in the provision of Article 361 of the Civil Code, the perpetrator of the damage is liable only for the normal, and not for all, consequences of an act or omission, whereby “the normal consequences of an act or omission are considered to be those that usually occur under the circumstances.”
  3. Liability of the assistant is merely derivative of the liability of the tortfeasor. Therefore, the basic condition for accepting liability for assistance is to show that the tort liability of the principal perpetrator is justified.
  4. It follows from the very construction of the liability of an assistant that in order to be “helpful to cause damage” one must include with consciousness the tortious act in the commission of which the assistant would participate. If there is no willfulness understood in this way, any acts or omissions of the assistant are only an element of the facts leading to the damage, but are not acts to which the legal system attaches liability for damages.
  5. The professional duty of banks to act with special care relates to the protection of funds entrusted to the bank by the account holder, and inherently involves contractual liability.

The Regional Court in Warsaw, 25th Civil Division, composed of:

Presiding Judge:           Krystyna Stawecka, Regional Court Judge

Judges:                           Anna Blażejczyk, Regional Court Judge;

Tomasz Gal, Regional Court Judge

having examined at a hearing on 17th July 2019 in Warsaw a case brought by K. P. acting as a representative of the group against (…) Bank (…) JSC W. for payment,

  1. dismisses the claim;
  2. leaves the decision on the costs of the trial to the court clerk, indicating that the defendant won the case in 100%.