Another case won before the NCA enabled the Client to sign a contract for the implementation of a public contract worth PLN 20 million.

Advocates and attorneys of the Law Firm represented a client operating in the road infrastructure sector in proceedings before the National Appeals Chamber (NAC) on an appeal by a contractor against the ordering party’s decision to select the offer of the Law Firm’s client as the most advantageous in a public procurement procedure.

The case was complicated, especially as at the stage of the exchange of positions before the hearing at the KIO, the appellant also questioned the Client’s ability to act in the proceedings as an accessory on the ordering party’s side. According to the appellant, the power of attorney granted to the consortium leader by the consortium members was defective. The appellant challenged the power of attorney granted by the consortium to the consortium representative, pointing out that the power of attorney was signed by a person defectively authorised to represent the consortium leader.

Lawyers of the Law Firm prepared an extensive legal and factual argumentation leading to the conclusion that in the case there are no grounds to exclude the Law Firm’s Client from participating in the proceedings before the NAC. According to the current line of jurisprudence, a power of attorney granted to the leader of a consortium should be granted by the other members of the consortium, and even a defective representation of the leader in the content of the power of attorney does not nullify the fact that the leader is authorised to act on behalf of the consortium, as proper signatures of the persons representing the other members of the consortium are sufficient. This position was also upheld by the panel of judges of the NAC.

In their response to the appeal, the lawyers of the Law Firm referred in detail to all the grounds of appeal and pointed out the incorrect drafting not only of the appeal grounds, but also of the incorrect legal analysis constituting the grounds for the appeal, as a result of which the appeal deserved to be dismissed already from the point of view of the deficiencies of the appeal grounds raised. In the appeal, the appellant raised only the further-reaching allegation – the allegation of failure to reject the offer of the Law Firm’s Client, ignoring the original allegation – the allegation of failure to call for clarifications pursuant to Article 128(1) of the PZP. An in-depth analysis of the NAC and common courts jurisprudence allowed us to present effective counter-arguments against the appellant’s procedural standpoint, as a result of which the appeal was dismissed in its entirety.

As a result of winning the case, our client signed a contract for the realisation of another order worth over PLN 20,000,000.00.