The Real Estate Practice has successfully represented the (direct) heir to the owner of real estate at Al. Róż, restored to the owner pursuant to the Warsaw Decree, in cases to set aside administrative decisions issued before 1990 to sell to third parties premises in the pre-war building (meeting the conditions in article 5 of the Decree) standing on the restored real estate.

In five judgments – of 2 June 2017 (I OSK 2136/15) and of 1 September 2017 (I OSK 2180/15, I OSK 2345/15, I OSK 2386/15 and I OSK 2325/16) – the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) broke a long line of jurisprudence and ruled in accordance with DZP’s stance that the authority with jurisdiction to decide cases to set aside administrative decisions issued before 1990 to sell to third parties premises in buildings covered by the Decree (meeting the conditions in article 5 of the Decree) is the Mazowiecki Voivod, not the Local Government Appeals Board in Warsaw.

The SAC judgments obtained by DZP also have significant civil law reference, as supervisory decisions issued to date by the Local Government Appeals Board in Warsaw (and thus, in light of the above-said judgments, an authority that does not have jurisdiction) on the unlawfulness of administrative decisions passed before 1990 to sell to third parties premises in buildings covered by the Decree (meeting the conditions in article 5 of the Decree) are also frequently the basis for claims for damages being brought against the State Treasury.

The case was conducted by DZP lawyers Lech Żyżylewski and Piotr Gołaszewski in our Real Estate Practice, specialising in, among other things, reprivatisation matters and issues concerning the application of administrative and administrative court procedures in real estate cases.