Success in a construction dispute

The Sowisło & Topolewski Law Firm successfully concluded the dispute at the appeal proceedings stage, in which attorney-at-law Przemysław Przerywacz represented one of the leading Polish engineering and contracting companies operating throughout the country. The value of the claim was almost PLN 725,000.00. On 26 July 2019, the Court of Appeal in Poznań announced its judgment, which legally resolved the dispute in favour of the Client of the Law Firm.

The case concerned the claims of the Sowisło & Topolewski Law Firm’s procedural opponent (subcontractor) related to a contract for construction and assembly works concluded with the Sowisło & Topolewski Law Firm’s Client, under which the subcontractor undertook to perform works specified in the contract.

Important issues examined by the Court of First and Second Instance were the possibility of charging contractual penalties calculated in relation to the withdrawal from the contract and the effectiveness of the withdrawal made on the basis of Article 491 of the Civil Code.

Attorney-at-law Przemysław Przerzewacz argued that simply reporting the existence of obstacles to the performance of the contract does not entitle to withdraw from the contract, but for the proper exercise of the right to withdraw, it is necessary to clearly threaten the withdrawal from the contract (communicating the possibility of withdrawal) in the event of failure to remove obstacles that occurred during the performance of the contract, preventing its proper performance.

After assessing the evidence, the Court of Appeal in Poznań shared the position presented by Przemysław Przerwacz in the appeal. As a result of the appeal filed by the Law Firm, the Court of Appeal in Poznań, in its judgment of 26 July 2019, modified the appealed judgment of the Court of First Instance by lowering the amount awarded against our Client from PLN 724,367.58 to PLN 274,177.58 together with statutory default interest.