Case law > Supreme Court resolution of January 25, 2022

Supreme Court resolution of January 25, 2022
III CZP 51/22

  1. The decision of the court of first instance as to the composition of the group issued in group proceedings may be appealed to the court of second instance (Article 394 of the Code of Civil Procedure in conjunction with Article 24(1) of the Law on Enforcement of Claims in Group Proceedings).
  2. In a situation where a given appeal is addressed to a specific court as competent to hear it (court ad quem) through the court that issued the appealed decision (court a quo), the legal issue may be presented to the Supreme Court only by the court to which the appeal is addressed (court ad quem). This may not be the court through which the appeal is brought (court a quo).
  3. The court through which the complaint is filed does not have jurisdiction to rule on the admissibility of the appeal filed in connection with the rule adopted as of November 7, 2019 that the court through which the complaint is filed only transfers the case file to the court of second instance (new wording of Article 371 of the Code of Civil Procedure and Article 395 § 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure).
  4. In a situation where the law allows a complaint without indicating which court has jurisdiction to hear it, it should be heard by the court of second instance, as this is still a model solution in civil proceedings. The assumption that the cases of complaint provided for by the law, for which a different composition of the court issuing the appealed decision is competent to recognize, should be qualified as deviations from the model construction of the complaint expressed in Article 394 in conjunction with Articles 395-397 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and not a separate type of appeal.

The Supreme Court, composed of:

Presiding Judge:           SSN Jacek Grela

Judges:                           SSN Marcin Łochowski, SSN Mariusz Łodko

in a case brought by the District Consumer Ombudsman in S. acting as a representative of the group against Bank […] Spółka Akcyjna in G. for a determination or, alternatively, for shaping, after deciding at a closed session in the Civil Chamber on January 25, 2022, the legal issue presented by the Court of Appeals in […] by the order of June 9, 2021, ref. no. V ACz […],

“After the entry into force of the Act of July 4, 2019 amending the Act – Code of Civil Procedure and certain other acts (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1469), on the decision on the composition of the group in accordance with Article 17(2) of the Act of December 17, 2009. (i.e., Journal of Laws of 2020, item 446) on the enforcement of claims in group proceedings, a complaint against the court’s decision may be filed with the court of second instance pursuant to Article 394 § 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, or with another composition of the court of first instance pursuant to Article 3941a of the Code of Civil Procedure?”.

adopted the resolution:

The decision of the court of first instance as to the composition of the group issued in group proceedings may be appealed to the court of second instance (Article 394 of the Code of Civil Procedure, in conjunction with Article 24(1) of the Act of December 17, 2009 on the enforcement of claims in group proceedings, unified text: Journal of Laws of 2020, item 446 as amended).