Forest seeding – will the Treasury take back ownership of forest land?
The law firm has joined a case for acquisitions conducted by the District Court in Szamotuły.
The applicant – a forestry district in western Greater Poland – is seeking a court declaration that the State Treasury has acquired ownership of a forest with an area of approx. 10 hectares. The law firm represents the heirs of the pre-war owners of the forest, who are still listed in the land register. In an analogous case carried out in 2000-2003, the heirs of the Habsburg family obtained favorable rulings and avoided the State Treasury’s seizure (Supreme Court judgments in V CK 13/03 and V CK 24/03).
At that time, the courts of all instances took the position that the possession of the Treasury
performed as part of the so-called Imperium (sovereign action) can not lead to an order of succession. In the meantime, this view has been broken by a resolution of the full panel of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court (III CZP 30/07), which determines that also organizational units of the State Treasury can be self-owners capable of being seized. The next hearing was set for March 23, 2010. On October 22, 2010, the court closed the hearing. The announcement of the ruling will take place on November 5, 2010.