Decree claims are no obstacle to prolonging usufruct term

On 20 December 2012 the Court of Appeal in Warsaw issued a judgment that dismissed an appeal brought by the capital city of Warsaw against a Regional Court judgment obliging the City to file a declaration of intent to extend the term of the perpetual usufruct for real estate located in an area covered by the Warsaw Decree of 1945, which – as the defendant claimed – was still in an area covered by the decree during the proceedings.

The Court of Appeal judgment (I ACa 722/12) is significant as it concerns the growing problem of a collision between decree claims and a claim brought by a current perpetual usufructuary to extend the term of this right. It is worth adding that in practice this problem is not adjudicated in a uniform manner, with an example being a judgment passed by the Court of Appeal in Warsaw, I ACa 1147/10, in which a difference stance was taken and one which was unfavourable to current perpetual usufructuaries. However, in Supreme Court case law (starting from the judgment of 9 May 2014, I CSK 342/13) the stance taken by DZP in the case in question is the prevailing stance.

The case was handled by Lech Żyżylewski and Piotr Gołaszewski from DZP’s Real Estate Practice, specialising in, inter alia, reprivatisation issues.