Success at the Supreme Administrative Court in a case involving the Decommunisation Act

The Supreme Administrative Court in Warsaw, in a final and binding judgment of 29 May 2019, dismissed the cassation appeal of the Governor of Wielkopolska against the judgment of the Voivodship Administrative Court in Poznań of 14 November 2018 repealing the replacement ordinance of the Governor of Wielkopolska issued under the so-called Decommunisation Act, pursuant to which the Governor changed the name of Jakuba Przybylskiego Street in Swarzędz to ks. Józefa Tischnera Street. The Law Firm, in the person of attorney Aleksandra Urbanowska-Bohun, represented the Commune of Swarzędz in this case. This is a final and binding verdict in a case concerning the so-called Decommunisation Act. The Supreme Administrative Court in Warsaw did not accept the position of the Governor of Wielkopolska expressed in his cassation appeal. Thus, it fully shared the arguments of the Voivodship Administrative Court in Poznań and the Swarzędz Commune represented by the Sowisło & Topolewski Law Firm that the subjective conviction of the Swarzędz Commune Council that it was not necessary to change the name of Jakuba Przybylskiego Street was sufficient to justify the possibility of challenging the Governor’s ordinance changing the name. It also pointed out that it was the duty of the Governor to conduct in-depth proceedings aimed at determining whether the name of the street should be changed under the Act. In particular, the Governor should have agreed on the matter with the Commune authorities and conducted consultations among the residents of Swarzędz to assess whether the figure of Jakub Przybylski in the general perception symbolises communism. Meanwhile, the Governor limited himself to sharing the opinion of the Institute of National Remembrance in this respect. 

Finally, the Supreme Administrative Court stated that Jakub Przybylski cannot be considered a person symbolising communism, since he was only an insignificant local activist.