Order of the District Court of Koszalin, 1st Civil Division, dated January 16, 2020
I C 619/18

1. Article 10(1) of the Law of December 17, 2009 on the Investigation of Claims in Group Proceedings stipulates that after hearing the parties, the court shall decide on the admissibility of group proceedings. The presentation of arguments by the parties in their pleadings meets the requirement of hearing the parties within the meaning of the cited provision.
2. The claim in group proceedings should be considered a procedural demand, which is an element of the action, and its specification is related to the issue of the division of actions into: actions for benefits, for determining the existence or non-existence of a right or legal relationship, and for the shaping of a right or legal relationship. Thus, the prerequisite for the admissibility of a class action is that all persons covered by the class action request legal protection in the same form. It is important that the condition for the assertion of claims in class proceedings is that they are of one type. Monetary claims can undoubtedly be considered to be of one type. Non-monetary claims, on the other hand, will be of one type only if they relate to the requested course of action (behavior) of the defendant, i.e. if all members of the class demand a certain action or omission (of the same type) on the part of the defendant. Undoubtedly, therefore, claims of a single type would not be monetary and non-monetary claims asserted simultaneously (in a single group proceeding), or different non-monetary claims asserted simultaneously.
3. An action to establish the defendant’s liability is brought when monetary claims are not suitable for unification in amount, or when the determination of monetary benefits could be associated with undue hardship.
4. In a class action to establish the defendant’s liability, the plaintiff does not have to prove the occurrence of damage or the amount of damage to individual members of the class, if these are individual and not common circumstances, but must determine what is the damage resulting from the tort constituting the basis of the claim. In turn, it is the court’s duty to determine and assess whether the property damage so identified can be considered damage caused by the tort identified in the class action, and whether it is common to all class members.

Regional Court in Koszalin I Civil Division composed as follows:

Presiding Judge:    SSO Jacek Grześkowiak

Judges:                    SSO Barbara Krzemianowska, SSO Iwona Szkudłapska-Ćwik

Having recognized on January 16, 2020 in Koszalin at a closed session the case from the claim of E. M. against S. W. in M. for determination decides to

Recognize the case in group proceedings.