Appeals against Review Committee decisions: in court, only participants who make themselves known

The Supreme Administrative Court has upheld DZP's position that, in proceedings before the administrative court involving appeals against decisions issued by the Review Committee for Matters Involving Warsaw Real Estate, the circle of participants is determined by Article 33 § 1a of the Law on Administrative Court Proceedings, not by the general provision of Article 33 § 1 of this Law.

As stated by the Supreme Administrative Court in three decisions of 8 and 26 November 2019 obtained by the DZP Real Estate Practice (I OZ 1038/19, I OZ 1102/19 and I OZ 1125/19), Article 16(3) and (4) of the Act of 9 March 2017 on Special Rules for Removing the Legal Effects of Reprivatisation Decisions concerning Warsaw Real Estate Issued in Breach of the Law is a special provision referred to in Article 33 § 1a of the Law on Administrative Court Proceedings. The latter provision, however, covers all situations in which the parties are, at the administrative proceedings stage, notified of decisions and other actions of an authority in a public procedure, regardless of whether the service procedure is an obligation or merely a power of the authority, which the authority exercises in a specific case.

The above decisions have two main procedural consequences in cases involving appeals against decisions issued by the Review Committee for Matters Involving Warsaw Real Estate.

First, parties to proceedings before the Review Committee for Matters Involving Warsaw Real Estate that have not lodged an appeal with the administrative court and the outcome of the court proceedings concerns their legal interest become participants in these proceedings having the rights of a party if, prior to the start of the hearing, they apply to join the proceedings. Therefore, pursuant to Article 54(4) of the Law on Administrative Court Proceedings, the Review Committee should notify the lodging of the appeal and the response to the appeal by way of a notice at the seat of that authority and on its website, and also in the manner customary in Warsaw (where the Review Committee is based), at the same time advising the parties to the proceedings of Article 33(1a) of the Law on Administrative Court Proceedings.

Second, parties to proceedings before the Review Committee for Matters Involving Warsaw Real Estate that have not filed an appeal with the administrative court or applied to join the court proceedings are not participants in these proceedings. Therefore, by virtue of Article 12 of the Law on Administrative Court Proceedings, the provisions of this Law concerning the parties do not apply to these entities, and so, e.g. the death of such a person (who is not a participant) during the court proceedings does not constitute grounds for the proceedings to be suspended (which the Supreme Administrative Court decisions of 8 and 26 November 2019, I OZ 1038/19, I OZ 1102/19 and I OZ 1125/19 obtained by the Real Estate Practice explicitly concerned).

The case was run by Lech Żyżylewski and Piotr Gołaszewski from the Real Estate Practice, specialising, inter alia, in reprivatisation matters.