Dispute with Serbia – precedential Polish court judgment

DZP has achieved another success in a high-profile case involving the reprivatisation of real estate at Al. Ujazdowskie 23 in Warsaw. In its judgment of 3 September 2015 the Regional Court in Warsaw awarded over PLN 21 million plus interest (to date, approx. PLN 20 million) against the Republic of Serbia to the Gawroński family as remuneration for the non-contractual use by the Republic of Serbia and its predecessors of the building at Al. Ujazdowskie 23 owned by the Gawroński family.

This ended the next phase of the dispute with the Republic of Serbia over its former embassy in Warsaw. The DZP lawyers who successfully represented the Gawroński family were Lech Żyżylewski, Partner, and Piotr Gołaszewski, Associate.

Although the judgment passed (III C 785/09) is not yet final and non-revisable, it is undoubtedly precedential, as the Regional Court found that Polish courts have jurisdiction in civil cases against foreign states, covered by acta de iure gestionis operations of foreign states in Poland. This enabled the Regional Court to uphold the claim, all the elements of which the Court found were grounded.

We have written about this case, e.g.:

• On 13 March 2014 the Supreme Court issued an order that dismissed the Republic of Serbia's cassation appeal 
• On 7 March the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed an appeal filed by the Republic of Serbia against a judgment passed by the Voivodship Administrative Court in Warsaw dismissing a previous appeal filed by Serbia against a decision taken by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration (now the Ministry of Internal Affairs – MIA) refusing to issue a permit for Serbia to acquire the real estate through acquisition prescription
• On 25 June 2012 the Regional Court in Warsaw issued a decision dismissing the appeal filed by the Republic of Serbia