Success before the Court of Appeal in a case against members of the management board of a limited liability company

On 22 April 2021, the advocates and attorneys of our Law Firm successfully completed a long-standing litigation before the Court of Appeal in Rzeszów between the Law Firm’s Client and members of the management board of a limited liability company in a case for payment of over PLN 400,000.00. The case concerned the liability of the members of the management board of a limited liability company, which was the lessee of premises in shopping malls, in connection with the ineffective enforcement from the company’s assets of the compensation due to the Law Firm’s Client (lessor) due to the premature termination of the lease agreement by the Law Firm’s Client for reasons attributable to the lessee, namely due to the abandonment of business activities in the leased premises.

The court of second instance, similarly to the previous Regional Court in Rzeszów, fully agreed with the position and arguments presented by the lawyers of the law firm, that in the realities of the case there were grounds to withdraw from the general rule that a creditor of a company suing members of the management board on the basis of Article 299 of the Commercial Companies Code should have a writ of execution stating a liability issued against the company. Irrespective of the above, the Court found that in view of the Law Firm’s Client proving the fact of the management board members’ failure to comply with the deadline for filing a bankruptcy petition, the damage suffered by the Client and its amount, it was possible to accept the liability of the respondent management board members also on the basis of Article 21 sec.3 of the Bankruptcy and Reorganisation Law (in the wording prior to 1 January 2016).

Thanks to the quick and effective actions of the Law Firm’s lawyers, including actions aimed at securing the claim asserted in the case, inter alia, through the establishment of a compulsory mortgage on the property of the respondent, the case finished with the full satisfaction of the Law Firm’s Client, who, in connection with the ruling, in a short period of time received the amount of the principal receivable together with interest receivables and litigation costs, in the amount exceeding PLN 600,000.00 in total.