Success in a dispute with an insurer

The Law Firm successfully concluded a dispute with the largest insurance company in Poland, in which Przemysław Przerywacz, legal advisor, represented the Zofia z Zamoyskich Tarnowska Voivodeship Hospital in Tarnobrzeg regarding a claim in the amount of PLN 500,000.00 along with interest. On 23 May 2019, the Court of Appeal in Warsaw issued a judgment in this case, which legally resolved the dispute in a manner favourable to the Client of the Law Firm.

The dispute concerned a recourse claim of the insured Hospital against the insurer. 

The Hospital, in a trial that lasted several years, has been obliged to pay compensation to a patient.

The Hospital demanded from the insurer the return of the indemnity paid. The insurance company refused referring to the statute of limitations, including Article 819 § 2 of the Civil Code, in force on the day of concluding the insurance agreement. 

During the trial, the Law Firm presented its position that the period of limitation of claims of the insured against the insurer begins at the earliest on the day on which the insured could exercise its rights under the insurance contract (Article 120 § 1 of the Civil Code); at the latest, it is the day of announcing the judgment, which resulted in the liability of the insured covered by its third party liability insurance. In the opinion of the Law Firm, deciding that the insured hospital’s claim against the insurer may become time-barred even before the hospital’s liability is determined would be contrary to the rules of reasonable reasoning and elementary sense of justice, which are currently referred to in numerous decisions by the Supreme Court.

In its judgment of 22 June 2019, file ref. no.: V ACa 402/18, the Court of Appeal in Warsaw fully shared the legal argumentation presented by Przemysław Przerywacz, legal adviser from the Department of Litigation and Dispute Resolution, and dismissed the defendant’s appeal in this case in its entirety.