Verdict of the Regional Court in Łódź 2nd Civil Division of 3rd July 2013
II C 1693/10

1. In terms of the credit value, time of duration of the agreement, fixed interest rates, and commission, the concluded agreements were diversified, and for this reason full standardisation of claims for personal performance, i.e. claims for payment, was not possible. Whereas due to the equal factual and legal basis of the claims, limiting the statement of claims to the demand for the establishment of the defendant’s contractual liability was substantiated. After the issuance of the verdict with the characteristics of a precedent and establishing defendant’s liability, individual group members shall have an opportunity to realise in court cases in the full scope the claims they are entitled to, or strive to prevent the dispute with the defendant in another manner, by concluding a a settlement.
2. The members of the group are claimants only in the material sense. In turn, in the formal sense the claimant is the group representative appearing in the litigation on the subrogation principle (procedural substitution) arising from the Act (Polish Act on pursuing claims in group proceedings).
3. In such a procedural arrangement, when the group representative is the claimant in the procedural meaning, then the return of the costs of the proceedings may be awarded to his benefit regardless of the character and provisions of the agreements, providing for the need to pay by the group members of the remuneration for the group representative or legal counsel. The legislator does not stipulate for the possibility to charge the costs of the litigation to individual members of the group, which is a reflection of depriving them of their procedural powers. It does not, however, waive the possibility to agree on the principles under which the members of the group will be obligated in the internal relationship to cover the costs to return which the group representative was obligated or the securing of performance of this obligation.
4. The remuneration of the group representative’s legal counsel (including the success fee) is not included within the costs of litigation and is not reimbursable by the adversary under Article 98 para 1 and 3 of the CCP (Polish Code of Civil Procedure).
5. Awarding in the group proceedings a fee for legal counsel’s services on the grounds of legal substitution, the Court takes into account the required work outlay of the legal counsel, as well as the character of the case and the contribution of the legal counsel’s work to clarifying and settling the case. This fee must not exceed the six-fold minimal rate or exceed the value of subject of the case. The provision of para 17 of the regulation under which for defending or representing several people the fee is collected from each of these persons does not apply in this case since, formally, legal representation pertained only to the representative of the group.

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