- Law of Succession - the case involving unworthiness of inheritance
The Legal Office, acting on behalf of the defendants, won the case involving unworthiness of inheritance. The claimant brought a lawsuit claiming the Legal Office's Clients' unworthiness of inheritance after their father, alleging that the defendants intentionally committed a serious offence against the deceased. In support of his claim, the plaintiff claimed that the defendants did not maintain contacts with their father who suffered a severe illness for several years before his death but the plaintiff did not offer any evidence to show that the defendants committed a serious crime against the deceased. The courts of first and second instance shared the argumentation of the Legal Office that no basis were provided for the recognition of the defendants as unworthy of the succession after their father. What the Appeal Court emphasised, a mere fact of raising the argument about weak relationship between the defendants and their father at the time of illness (which was not proved in this litigation) was insufficient to establish the existence of the premises allowing to deem the defendants unworthy of inheritance.
- proceedings in front of the Regional Court in Krakow I Civil Division and in front of the Appeal Court in Krakow I Civil Division.
- Invalidation of a lease agreement
The Regional Court in Kraków, IX Economic Department on 15 September 2009 passed a judgement in the matter started by a company of a structural branch, represented by a legal counsellor Benedykt Fiutowski, demanding an invalidation of a lease agreement, according to which the Court invalidated a lease agreement of an enterprise of a bankrupt concluded by defendants. The court indicated that there are two basic interpretations of Article 705 of the Polish Civil Code on which the suit of our Client was based in this matter. The first one requires that a violation of good customs as a condition of invalidation of an agreement is considerable and may be almost treated as a corruption. According to the second approach, a more lenient one, a condition of violation of good customs as a basis of invalidation of an agreement exists also then when generally accepted axiological norms, behavioral norms, not necessarily understood as a corruption, have been violated. The Court based the judgement on the second approach. Taking the above mentioned into consideration, the Regional Court stated that if someone announces an auction, he should comply with all the rules applied to the auction. Whereas, in the Court's opinion, a regulation of the auction was "odd". On the one hand it provided criteria of a selection of offers, on the other hand it granted to an organizer of the auction a non-limited right to a "free choice of offers". The court noticed here an obvious inner discrepancy. According to the Court, if an organizer for purpose of selecting a lessee chose a form of an auction, he should acknowledge its regulation and constantly comply with all norms and obligations applying to this form of chosing a contracting party, i.e. applicable towards the auction. The judgement is not yet final and valid.
- proceedings in front of the Regional Court in Kraków IX Economic Department
- Banker's letter of credit
In August 2009, after almost 5 years of court proceedings started by the suit of the bank's contracting party for payment of 25 million zloty the Legal Office - representing a bank - obtained in front of the Appeal Court in Warszawa an advantageous judgement for its client which upheld a judgement of the court of the 1st instance dismissing a suit in full. The matter concerns a banker's letter of credit (rarely existing in the turnover) granted by a foreign bank. A basis for cognizance was an interpretation of provisions of the banking law, and especially of provisions of enforceability of claims arising from a banker's letter of credit which due to a poor jurisdiction are still a subject of variant interpretation of courts. A legal opinion concerning the provisions of the banking law presented by us was fully accepted by the courts of both instances.
- proceedings in front of the Regional Court in Warszawa I Civil Department and in front of the Appeal Court in Warszawa I Civil Department
- Currency options
Recently we have undertaken an order of one of the renowned Polish banks to lead its matters connected with currency options in the scope of preparation of legal opinions concerning contracts which objects are currency options, as well as legal representation in several court proceedings in which the bank takes part.
- Compensation for an enterpreneur
We have recently won in front of the court of the first and the second instance proceedings on compensation for a client of the legal office. Our client, an entrepreneur, incurred a damage of thousands in connection with a business activity led by him, caused by an illegal activity of another entrepreneur which blocked access to an object of tenancy; the blockade made it difficult to lead a business activity by our client in the usual course. A very detailed suit and gathered documents, presented to the court, let us obtain a positive judgement, i.e. the court adjudged in favour of our client a compensation in the amount of over one hundred thousand zloty. The above mentioned judgement has been held in force by the court of the second instance.
- proceedings in front of the Regional Court in Kraków IX Economic Department and in front of the Appeal Court in Kraków I Civil Department
- Court proceedings concerning acquisitive prescription of ownership of a real estate
One of the most important matters concerning acquisitive prescription, led by the legal office Budzowska Fiutowski & Partners. Legal Advisers, as far as an amount of a dispute's object is concerned (several million zloty), related to proceedings on acquisitive prescription of shares in three real estates placed in the centre of Kraków by the State Treasury. In this matter the legal office represented Polish and British citizens and legal persons being co-owners of real estates. The matter has been decided in favour of the clients of the legal office both in the first and in the second instance.
- proceedings in front of the District Court for Kraków - Śródmieście in Kraków I Civil Department and the Regional Court in Kraków II Civil - Appeal Department
- Delimitation of real estates
An organ of a local government started ex officio proceedings on delimitation of real estates located in the area of Kraków, in which it passed a decision among others on handing over the matter ex officio to the court to its judgement. One of the co-owners of the real estate which was an object of the delimitation proceedings did not agree with the issued decision. On his behalf the legal office filed an appeal, in which it was raised among others that the organ started the proceedings ex officio without justification, as well as other arguments concerning breach of procedure of leading proceedings. In relation to the appeal the Council Appeal Board (Samorządowe Kolegium Odwoławcze) overruled the decision and discontinued administrative proceedings.
- proceedings in front of the Council Appeal Board (Samorządowe Kolegium Odwoławcze) in Kraków
- A complaint at lengthiness of court proceedings
Among successes of the legal office there is a positive outcome of a complaint at lengthiness of court proceedings concerning an entry of the company into the National Court Register. As the result of the complaint the court adjudged a maximum amount of money, provided by legal provisions, because of a stated delay, from the State Treasury in favour of the complaining company.
- proceedings in front of the Regional Court in Kraków XII Economic Department
- A claim of an employee for a severance pay
An employee came out against a former employer with a claim for a severance pay in connection with dissolving a labour contract because of reasons not concerning an employee. The amount of a severance pay depended on job seniority by the employer (a client of the legal office), however if job seniority exceeded 10 years, the due severance pay should be doubled. In connection with that the employee claimed for a double severance pay with justification that his job seniority amounted to over 10 years, and in order to count the job seniority he applied Art. 114 of the Civil Code. The employer argued with a method of counting the job seniority, presented by the plaintiff, demanding a dismissal of the lawsuit. The lawsuit of the employee was finally dismissed by the court of the second instance which in the justification of the judgement shared a content-related opinion of the employer.
- proceedings in front of the District Court for the capital city Warszawa VII Labour and Social Insurance Department and in front of the Regional Court in Warszawa XII Labour Department
- Proceedings on obtaining a permit for allowing a medical product to turnover
We represented our client in the matter of pharmaceutical law in proceedings on obtaining a permit for allowing a medical product to turnover in front of both proper public administrative authorities and administrative courts. We have obtained for our client advantageous decisions issued by the Supreme Administrative Court and Administrative Court of Voivodeship in Warszawa, i.e. decisions of the Health Minister concerning a refusal to grant a permit for allowing medical products to turnover has been overruled.
- Press law
The legal office has recently led court proceedings in the matter of breach - by untrue or careless information contained in an edition of one of the most widely read national weekly magazine - of basic personal rights of a client of the legal office, i.e. of honour, good name, and private sphere of life. The court of the first instance admitted a claim of the legal office in the whole in the scope of placing by the defendant (the magazine) an announcement correcting untrue descriptions and a statement about our client. Because of the range of the breach of personal rights of the client in the said matter, the legal office claimed also for a proper pecuniary redress in favour of the client, which will be an object of proceedings in front of the court of the second instance.
- proceedings in front of the Regional Court in Warszawa IV Civil Department
- Proceedings in front of treasury organs
The legal office
Budzowska Fiutowski & Partners. Legal Advisers leads efficiently activities in front of proper treasury organs, especially in the scope of settlement of taxes due by foreign subjects. The legal office has recently settled for clients in the most favourable way a number of tax due amounts arising from inheritance proceedings and donations, concerning real estates in Kraków, Katowice and Bielsko-Biała. As a result of gathered documents and systematic efforts of the legal office by proper tax organs the proceedings ended quickly and with a positive outcome for the client of the legal office.
- Proceedings on granting of a public order
While renderring services connected with public procurement law we have been representing both ordering parties and tenderers, including also tenderers from abroad. One of our clients was a company from the United States who was represented by us in several proceedings and in all of them an offer of our client was chosen. During performance of orders we helped to solve diverse legal questions, contributing this way to efficient course of works and proper contacts between our client and its contracting parties.
Medical cases
- 1,400,000 zloty for medical negligence during the childbirth
The legal office Budzowska Fiutowski & Partners. Legal Counsellors is leading court proceedings in the matter concerning medical negligence during the childbirth caused to a minor plaintiff in which the Regional Court in Lublin granted redress in the amount of 600 thousand zloty and 5 thousand of a monthly pension which constitutes one of the highest amounts adjudged in Poland. An injured boy, as a result of oxygen deficiency during the birth, has severe symptoms of damage of nervous system. The boy does not establish optical contact, has microcephaly, does not sit on his own, does not stand, requires a permanent rehabilitation and help of third persons until the end of his life. In order to satisfy needs of a minor plaintiff during the court trial our legal office asked the court on his behalf to grant him a temporary pension. The court recognized this motion positively.
Specific character of matters connected with medical negligence caused that during the court proceedings it was necessary among others to hear many witnesses, prepare many writs containing an extensive legal argumentation and passing many opinions by experts. The proceedings lasted over 6 years. During the court trial 17 court sittings took place, 11 medical opinions were issued.
As a result of an appeal of the Legal Office filed on behalf of the Client to the Court of II instance an injured minor boy was adjudged an amount of over 1,400,000 zloty. This amount consists of redress and compensation (with legal interest) and pension for the day of passing the judgement. Apart from the above mentioned amount the boy will also receive legal interest counted on basis of a pension adjudged for more than 6 years of court procedure.
- proceedings in front of the Regional Court in Lublin,
I Civil Department, and in front of the Appeal Court in Lublin I Civil Department
- A complicated matter ended up with a success
In June 2009 the Appeal Court in Szczecin passed a judgement in which it adjudged in favour of a plaintiff an amount of 150 thousand zloty as a redress and about 50 thousand zloty as a compensation, and 1.325 zloty of a monthly pension since November 2004. A matter which ended up with a success was a very complicated one because of a complex factual state and a necessity of settlement of a level of contribution of a sued hospital's personnel to health's damage, being a result of a car accident. In 1997 a plaintiff with his father and uncle took part in a car accident - a horse from the nearby stud ran directly into the car. As a result of this accident an uncle of a plaintiff died. A plaintiff was then eighteen years old and he and his father were injured in the accident. Despite of symptoms of a spine injury, the plaintiff's spine was not stiffened in any way (either during a transport or during the first days of a stay in the hospital), the injured plaintiff was not secured from moving himself, a radiological examination of his spine was not led, and it was not even led directly after a negative opinion of a neurologist was passed. As there was no examination led which would confirm pressure at spinal cord, there was no operation aiming at removal of this pressure in the proper time. This whole negligence caused strengthening of paralysis of legs and hands which at the moment of reception to the hospital were skilful (healthy) and there was a chance (but not certainty) to rescue their functions. At the moment the almost thirty-year-old man is paralysed and has little power in his hands.
A few years ago, before starting courts proceedings against a hospital, the plaintiff (without cooperation of the Legal Office) concluded an agreement with an insurer and an owner of the stud from which a horse causing the accident ran away. After several years - after having obtained a legal advice of our Legal Office - he decided to pursue further claims based on damages caused by negligence committed by medical personnel of the sued hospital. The most difficult issue was to settle a level of contribution of two factors to plaintiff's damage - an accident and a faulty treatment - and to settle probability if proper treatment could prevent the results of the accident. In order to settle causal nexus between state of current health of the plaintiff and medical negligence it was necessary to prepare many medical opinions and to settle in what degree the plaintiff's state is caused by medical negligence. In the proceedings it was stated that the fact of affirmation of breaching patient's rights, even without occurring negative effects, justifies adjudication of redress. The proceedings lasted almost 5 years, however because of pursuing also interest since the day of delivery of a suit to the defendants, apart from main amounts the plaintiff obtained also statutory interest for the period of the court proceedings (at the moment statutory interest amount to 13 % yearly). On the day of passing a judgement by the court of the 2nd instance they amounted to about 200 thousand zloty.
- proceedings in front of the Regional Court in Szczecin I Civil Department and in front of the Appeal Court in Szczecin I Civil Department
- Compensation for a client for hospital infection
Recently we have won in front of the court of the first instance one of many proceedings on compensation for a client of the legal office - a patient infected by skin staphylococcus in one of the hospitals in Warsaw. A special character of medical cases, a specific subject matter, complexity and ambiguity of problems connected with them required undertaking a number of activities in order to prove responsibility of a hospital for health damage incurred by the client. A carefully prepared suit, presented evidences and documents gathered in the case let us obtain an advantageous judgement for our client, i.e. adjudication of compensation in the amount of two hundred thousand zloty. The defendant has not filed an appeal to the court of the second instance.
- proceedings in front of the Regional Court in Warszawa XXIV Civil Department
- The case closed after over 15 years
After over 10 years of court proceedings in the medical matter, the legal office took over the case from another attorney. The final and valid judgement was passed after 5 years of leading the proceedings by the legal office and the judgement was executed, however, during that period the case was examined twice by the Appeal Court. The plaintiff obtained redress in the claimed amount, as well as compensation and a monthly pension. The adjudged sum with interest amounted almost to one million zloty. An additional case that appeared in this matter concerned settlement of a subject obliged to repair damage incurred by the plaintiff - a patient - firstly, as a result of a conversion of health protection institutes into independent posts and secondly, as a result of a reform of public administration concerning entities entitled to represent the State Treasury.
- proceedings in front of the Regional Court in Warszawa I Civil Department and in front of the Appeal Court in Warszawa I Civil Department
- Record-breaking redress
The legal office led proceedings in which the court granted the highest redress for medical negligence of that time, i.e. seven hundred thousand zloty (a judgement of the Regional Court in Katowice was issued in 2007). A four-year-old boy was injured as a result of culpable medical negligence (incorrect connection of a drip). He suffered from lasting paresis of lower limbs. In order to enable during the court trial satisfaction of basic needs of the injured boy, arising from his health condition, the legal office while filing a suit, filed at the same time a motion to the court for passing a temporary order obliging defendants to pay to the plaintiff monthly a specified amount of money. The motion was examined positively by the court.
- proceedings in front of the Regional Court in Katowice II Civil Court in front of the Appeal Court in Katowice I Civil Department and proceedings in front of the Highest Court Civil Chamber
