Case law > Decision of the Court of Appeal in Warsaw, 6th Civil Division, dated 23rd September 2015

Decision of the Court of Appeal in Warsaw, 6th Civil Division, dated 23rd September 2015
VI ACz 1434/15

  1. Each of the spouses appearing in the various subgroups may be considered a single person as referred to in Article 1 Section 1 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings. An assessment of whether the formulation of the claim pursued by each spouse corresponds to the content of the actual claims, to which they are entitled, cannot affect the determination of the number of persons appearing in the proceedings for the purpose of determining the admissibility of group proceedings, and should be considered by the Court when ruling on the merits of the case.
  2. In group proceedings, the plaintiff is also not required to demonstrate a legal interest if the lawsuit is limited to a demand for determination when pursuing monetary claims. The plaintiff is relieved of this obligation by the content of Article 2 Section 3 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings.
  3. The requirement to indicate the principles for unifying the amount of claims is a formal requirement of a group lawsuit, and not a prerequisite for the admissibility of such proceedings. Any failure to comply with this requirement (in the event of failure to comply with the obligation to remove the deficiencies of the lawsuit) should therefore result not in the rejection of the lawsuit, but in the return of the lawsuit.
  4. Failure to attach the group representative’s contract with the attorney to the lawsuit can only be qualified as a formal deficiency of the lawsuit, the failure to remove which results in the return of the lawsuit, and not in the rejection of the lawsuit.

The Court of Appeal in Warsaw, 6th Civil Division, composed of:

Presiding Judge:           Irena Piotrowska, Judge of the Court of Appeal

Judges:                           Krzysztof Tucharz, Judge of the Court of Appeal;

Grażyna Kramarska, Regional Court Judge (delegated) (Judge – Rapporteur)

having recognized on 23rd September 2015 in Warsaw at a session in camera the case brought by the representative of the group E. D. against (…) Bank (…) S.A. in W. for payment

as a result of the complaint of the group representative against the decision of the Regional Court in Warsaw dated 28th April 2015, file no. III C 881/14,

decides to:

amend the complained decision and rule to hear the case in group proceedings.