Judgment of the Regional Court in Szczecin, 1st Civil Division, dated 21st December 2021

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  1. However, the application of Article 417 of the Civil Code, as in effect prior to 1st September 2004, must take into account the Constitutional Court’s judgment of 4th December 2001, SK 18/00 (OTK 2001, No. 8, item 256), which ruled that Article 418 of the Civil Code is incompatible with Article 77 Section 1 of the Polish Constitution, and that Article 417 of the Civil Code, understood to mean that the State Treasury is liable for damage caused by the unlawful action of a state official in performing an act entrusted to him, is compatible with Article 77 Section 1 of the Polish Constitution. The underlying premise of this judgment was that the indicated provision of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland establishes a norm that ensures everyone’s right to compensation for damage caused by the unlawful action of a public authority. However, the content of Article 77 Section 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland is so vague that it does not provide a basis for deriving civil law claims from it. Therefore, it is reasonable to indicate Article 417 of the Civil Code in conjunction with Article 77 of the Polish Constitution as the legal basis.
  2. The compensation claim that arises on the part of shareholders in the event of loss of share value due to bankruptcy is a lucrum cessans type of compensation claim, i.e. compensation for loss of the right to dividends. Shareholders, as a result of the bankruptcy (and consequently, during the bankruptcy proceedings), have (theoretically) lost their right to dividends. By contrast, the loss of share value is de facto damage to the company, not to the shareholders. The legal construction of the joint-stock company and the resulting indirect participation of the shareholder in its activities thus determine, among other things, that the damage caused to the company cannot at the same time be considered a damage suffered by the shareholder.

The Regional Court in Szczecin, 1st Civil Division, composed of:

Presiding Judge:               Joanna Kitlowska-Moroz, Regional Court Judge

having recognized on 21st December 2021 in Szczecin at a session in camera in group proceedings

the case brought by K. P. (1) against (…) for payment

  1. dismisses the claim;
  2. refrains from charging the plaintiff with the costs of legal representation due to the defendant;
  3. charges the plaintiff with 100% of the unpaid court costs, leaving their detailed settlement to the court clerk.

Decision of the Regional Court in Warsaw, 25th Civil Division, dated 7th July 2022

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

Presiding Judge:               Anna Pogorzelska, Regional Court Judge

having examined on 7th July 2022 in Warsaw at a session in camera the case of a group action brought by the Poviat Consumer Ombudsman in the Poviat (…) against (…) Joint Stock Company with its registered office in W. for payment

regarding determination of the composition of the group

decided to:

deny the status of a group member to the following persons: A.S., T.R., S.J., M.N., L.N., H.J., K.P., M.M., A.B., M.F., R.W., J.W., E.C., A.S., K.F., G.N., W.D., G.Ż., F.K., K.W.

Decision of the Regional Court in Warsaw, 25th Civil Division, dated 27th April 2022

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  1. In group proceedings, an action to establish the liability of the defendant in a case for a monetary claim arising from an act constituting a single event (Article 2 Section 3 in conjunction with Article 1 Sections 1 and 2) is also permissible in a situation where the premise of the occurrence of the damage and its amount depends on the individual factual circumstances of the individual members of the group. The court is of the opinion that the purpose of this stage of the proceedings was in no way to examine the legitimacy of the claim made on the grounds of the defendant’s liability for damages. Indeed, it is not permissible for the court at the stage of preliminary examination of the admissibility of the examination of the claim to refer directly to the assessment of the merits of the claim in the form of conducting evaluative considerations on the circumstances justifying the existence and type of, for example, a causal link between the plaintiffs’ damage and the defendant’s behavior.
  2. In addition, attention should be drawn to the need for a purposive interpretation of Article 1 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings. Undoubtedly, the intention of the legislator was to make it easier (and not more difficult) for consumers, or persons who have suffered damage in connection with a dangerous product or a tort, to pursue their claims. Thus, the interpretation of the provisions of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings should be made in such a way as to facilitate the pursuit of such claims by group members.

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

Presiding Judge:              Krystyna Stawecka, Regional Court Judge

having recognized on 27th April 2022 in Warsaw at an session in camera pursuant to Article 15zzs1 of the Act of 2nd March 2020 on Special Solutions Related to the Prevention, Counteracting and Combating of COVID-19, Other Infectious Diseases and Crisis Situations Caused by Them (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1478) in group proceedings

the case brought by A. G. (group representative) against the State Treasury – Council of Ministers, Minister of Health, Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration for determination (on the admissibility of group proceedings)

decided to:

hear the case in group proceedings.

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

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  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%.

Judgment of the Regional Court in Warsaw, 3rd Civil Division, dated 26th April 2019

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  1. In order to qualify claims for group proceedings, they must be averaged, which the plaintiffs did both in the lawsuit and its modification. This is because the lack of such averaging of claims would result in undermining the point of group proceedings at all, since the court would have to examine in detail and individually the case of each injured party in order to determine the actual value of his claim, which it can just as well do in individual proceedings. On the other hand, one of the benefits of group proceedings is that the court examines the circumstances of the case collectively with respect to all members of the group, so that the proceedings can be conducted more quickly and efficiently.
  2. The case law is unanimous in emphasizing that damage in the form of lost benefits must be demonstrated by the injured party with such a high degree of probability that, in light of life experience, justifies the assumption that the loss of expected benefits actually occurred. From damage in the form of lucrum cessans, it is necessary to distinguish the concept of potential damage, by which is meant “the loss of the chance to obtain a certain material benefit.” The difference is expressed in the fact that in the case of lucrum cessans the hypothesis of loss of benefit borders on certainty, while in the case of eventual damage the probability of loss of benefit is much lower. It is assumed that the eventual damage is not compensable.
  3. The construction of the provisions on abusive clauses does not allow the performance of the so-called reduction that maintains the effectiveness. Therefore, it is not possible to correct an abusive contractual provision, that is, to change its content in such a way that the provision no longer constitutes a prohibited provision.
  4. The mere fact that the claim is asserted in a group proceeding does not exempt from proving the fact and amount of damage suffered individually with respect to each member of the groups and subgroups. Article 2 Section 1 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings cannot be used as such a basis. The disposition of this provision is addressed to the plaintiff and relates to the manner in which the claim is formulated, not to the court obliging it to “lump sum” amounts awarded. Moreover, any “lump-sum” compensation would be tantamount to the introduction of a contractual penalty unknown in the legal relationship between the parties. The allowance of the claims of the individual members of the group was therefore conditional on proving in the course of the proceedings that they had actually suffered damages, in an amount at least equivalent to the damages claimed in the proceedings. There is no room here for any “estimated” amounts to make up for the damage they suffered.

The Regional Court in Warsaw, 3rd Civil Division, composed of:

Presiding Judge:           Grzegorz Chmiel, Regional Court Judge

Judges:                            Joanna Bitner, Regional Court Judge;

Ewa Jończyk, Regional Court Judge

having examined at a hearing on 4th April 2019 in Warsaw in group proceedings the case brought by K. K. (1) – the representative of the group and group participants:

(…)

against the Housing Cooperative (…) with its registered office in W. for payment:

  1. dismisses the claim in its entirety;
  2. awards the amount of PLN 21,617 (twenty-one thousand six hundred and seventeen) from K. K. (1) in favor of the defendant Housing Cooperative (…) with its registered office in W. as reimbursement of costs of the trial.

Decision of the Regional Court in Warsaw, 20th Commercial Division, dated 27th April 2021

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  1. Group proceedings have a number of significant differences from ordinary civil proceedings. First of all, the course of the proceedings, the prerequisites for the admissibility of the proceedings and the scope of civil cases that can be recognized in group proceedings, the formation of the subject party, the rules for determining the remuneration of an attorney, the specific requirements for the content of a lawsuit, as well as a number of formal differences related to the conduct of group proceedings are different. All these differences mean that it is not possible to apply directly all the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code that have not been excluded by the provision of Article 24 Section 1 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings. This leads to the conclusion that also to proceedings initiated before 1st June 2017, the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code should be applied accordingly.
  2. The provision of Article 24 Section 1 of the Act on Pursuing Claims in Group Proceedings has never excluded the application of Article 193 of the Code of Civil Procedure, despite its several amendments. In view of the importance of this provision, the exclusion from application of neighboring provisions, i.e., Articles 194-196 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and the lack of changes in this regard when subsequent amendments were made, it should be considered that this was a conscious decision by the legislator. Nor does the application of this provision is definitively excluded by the distinctiveness of group proceedings. Therefore, it should have been assumed that, in principle, the modification of the action recognized in the group proceedings is permissible.
  3. The act does not provide for a specific procedure for resolving the issue of admissibility of the inclusion of new claims in group proceedings. As a result, the provisions relating to the claims filed in the lawsuit should be applied accordingly.

The Regional Court in Warsaw, 20th Commercial Division, composed of:

Presiding Judge:           Katarzyna Kisiel, Regional Court Judge

Judges:                           Joanna Sieradz, Regional Court Judge;

Łukasz Oleksiuk, Regional Court Judge (Judge – Rapporteur)

having examined on 27th April 2021 in Warsaw at a hearing the case brought by (…) Limited Liability Company with its registered office in W. against (…) with its registered office in N. (C.) for the protection of copyrights and related rights in group proceedings

decides to:

hear the case with respect to the new claims submitted by the plaintiff in the letter of 23rd September 2019 in the group proceedings.

Decision of the Regional Court in Warsaw, 20th Commercial Division, dated 13th August 2020

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The Regional Court in Warsaw, 20th Commercial Division, composed of:

Łukasz Oleksiuk, District Court Judge (delegated)

having examined on 13th August 2020 in Warsaw, at a session in camera, the case brought by (…) limited liability company with its registered office in W. against (…) with its registered office in N. (C.) for the protection of copyright and related rights in group proceedings

decides to:

  1. resume the stayed proceedings;
  2. terminate the proceedings with respect to the following claims described in the lawsuit:
    1. described in paragraph 1 of the statement of claim, concerning prohibiting the Respondent from using – within the Service (…) (“Service (…)”, “(…)” or “(…)”), of which the Respondent is the administrator – the “System (…)” as defined in the statement of claim, which causes or leads to infringement of the Group members’ economic copyrights to, inter alia, the works indicated in exhibit 35 to the statement of claim;
    2. described in paragraph 3 of the statement of claim, concerning an order that the Respondent, in the event that the Respondent obtains knowledge or credible knowledge that a particular file contains an unlawfully distributed work through the (…) Service, prevent access to all identical files, including copies of that file, even if the name of the copy is not the same as the name of the file, to all except the user who posted the file on the Service.

Judgment of the Regional Court in Warsaw, 3rd Civil Division, dated 17th February 2020

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The Regional Court in Warsaw, 3rd Civil Division, composed of:

Presiding Judge:            Joanna Kruczkowska, Regional Court Judge

Judges:                            Joanna Bitner, Regional Court Judge;

Andrzej Lipinski, District Court Judge (delegated)

having examined at a hearing on 16th January 2020 in Warsaw the case brought by A. R. – representative of the group against (…) Union (…) in W., for payment:

  1. awards from (…) Union (…) in W. to all members of the subgroups, in the present group proceedings, the amounts due to each of them – according to the list attached to the judgment;
  2. dismisses the claim in the remaining part;
  3. charges the (…) Union (…) in W. with the costs of the proceedings in their entirety, leaving the detailed calculation of these costs to the court clerk after the judgment becomes final, with the remuneration of the attorney representing the plaintiff to be calculated at 2 times the minimum rate.

LIST ANNEXED TO THE JUDGMENT OF THE REGIONAL COURT IN WARSAW DATED 17th FEBRUARY 2020 CASE FILE III C 603/15

(…)

– whereas all of the aforementioned amounts are due with statutory interest for delay calculated from 18th June 2015 to the date of payment.

Default Judgment of the Regional Court in Lublin, 1st Civil Division, dated 7th June 2019

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Presiding Judge:            Piotr Czerski, Regional Court Judge

Judges:                            Jolanta Szymanowska, Regional Court Judge;

Agnieszka Wojnarowicz-Posłuszna, Regional Court Judge

having examined at a hearing on 7th June 2019 in Lublin

the case brought by J. O. (representative), acting in his own name and on his own behalf and on behalf of: [data of 25 members of the group]

against (…) Joint-Stock Company with its registered office in L. in group proceedings for payment

  1. awards the amount of PLN 1,009,000.00 (one million nine thousand 00/100) from the defendant (…) Joint-Stock Company with its registered office in L., in favor of J. O. (group representative), with contractual interest at the rate of 8.8% per annum on this amount from 28th November 2016 to 27th November 2017, and statutory interest for delay from 28th November 2017 to the date of payment, determining that the following amounts are due from the awarded amount to individual members of the group (subgroups):
    1. in favor of (…) and (…) the amounts of PLN 118,000.00 (one hundred and eighteen thousand 00/100 zlotys) each with contractual interest at the rate of 8.8% per annum on this amount from 28th November 2016 to 27th November 2017, and statutory interest for delay from 28th November 2017 to the date of payment;
    2. in favor of (…), (…), (…) and (…) the amounts of PLN 85,000.00 (eighty-five thousand 00/100 zlotys) each, with contractual interest at the rate of 8.8% per annum on this amount from 28th November 2016 to 27th November 2017, and statutory interest for delay from 28th November 2017 to the date of payment;
    3. in favor of (…), (…) and (…) the amounts of PLN 43,000.00 (forty-three thousand 00/100 zlotys) each, with contractual interest at the rate of 8.8% per annum on this amount from 28th November 2016 to 27th November 2017, and statutory interest for delay from 28th November 2017 to the date of payment;
    4. in favor of to (…), (…) and (…) the amount of PLN 34,000.00 (thirty-four thousand 00/100 zlotys) with contractual interest at the rate of 8.8% per annum on this amount from 28th November 2016 to 27th November 2017, and statutory interest for delay from 28th November 2017 to the date of payment;
    5. in favor of (…) and (…) the amount of PLN 26,000.00 (twenty-six thousand 00/100 zlotys) with contractual interest at the rate of 8.8% per annum on this amount from 28th November 2016 to 27th November 2017, and statutory interest for delay from 28th November 2017 to the date of payment;
    6. in favor of (…), (…), (…), (…), (…) and (…) the amounts of PLN 17,000.00 (seventeen thousand 00/100 zlotys) each, with contractual interest at the rate of 8.8% per annum on this amount from 28th November 2016 to 27th November 2017, and statutory interest for delay from 28th November 2017 to the date of payment;
    7. in favor of (…) and (…) the amounts of PLN 12,000.00 (twelve thousand 00/100 zlotys) each, with contractual interest at the rate of 8.8% per annum on this amount from 28th November 2016 to 27th November 2017, and statutory interest for delay from 28th November 2017 to the date of payment;
    8. in favor of (…) and (…) the amounts of PLN 8,000.00 (eight thousand 00/100 zlotys) each, with contractual interest at the rate of 8.8% per annum on this amount from 28th November 2016 to 27th November 2017, and statutory interest for delay from 28th November 2017 to the date of payment;
    9. in favor of (…) and (…) the amounts of PLN 4,000.00 (four thousand 00/100 zlotys) each, with contractual interest at the rate of 8.8% per annum on this amount from 28th November 2016 to 27th November 2017, and statutory interest for delay from 28th November 2017 to the date of payment;
  2. awards from the defendant (…) Joint-Stock Company with its registered office in L. in favor of the group representative the total amount of PLN 33,186.25 (thirty-three thousand one hundred eighty-six 25/100 zlotys) as reimbursement of the costs of the trial;
  3. orders that the amount of PLN 524.35 (five hundred and twenty-four 35/100 zlotys) be collected from the defendant (…) Joint-Stock Company, with its registered office in L., in favor of the State Treasury – the Regional Court in Lublin – as reimbursement of expenses;
  4. gives the judgment in point I immediate enforceability.

Decision of the Regional Court in Lublin, 1st Civil Division, dated 22nd March 2019

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Presiding Judge:            Piotr Czerski, Regional Court Judge

Judges:                            Jolanta Szymanowska, Regional Court Judge;

Agnieszka Wojnarowicz-Posłuszna, Regional Court Judge

having examined at a session in camera on 22nd March 2019 in L.

the case brought by J. O. (representative), [data of 25 group members]

against (…) Joint-Stock Company with its registered office in L. in group proceedings for payment

decides to:

determine the following composition of the group and subgroups:

  1. [data of 2 group members] (Group (…)),
  2. [data of 4 group members] (Group (…)),
  3. [data of 3 group members] (Group (…)),
  4. [data of 3 group members] (Group (…)),
  5. [data of 2 group members] (Group (…)),
  6. [data of 6 group members] (Group (…)),
  7. [data of 2 group members] (Group (…)),
  8. [data of 2 group members] (Group (…)),
  9. [data of 2 group members] (Group (…)).
  1. [data of 2 group members] (Group (…)),
  2. [data of 4 group members] (Group (…)),
  3. [data of 3 group members] (Group (…)),
  4. [data of 3 group members] (Group (…)),
  5. [data of 2 group members] (Group (…)),
  6. [data of 6 group members] (Group (…)),
  7. [data of 2 group members] (Group (…)),
  8. [data of 2 group members] (Group (…)),
  9. [data of 2 group members] (Group (…)).