Victory in a court dispute concerning the modernisation of provincial road No. 776

The Court of Appeal in Krakow has definitively dismissed all appeals lodged by the bankruptcy trustee of the consortium leader and other consortium members who carried out the investment involving the modernisation of approximately 40 kilometres of provincial road No. 776.

The Court of Appeal in Krakow has definitively dismissed all appeals lodged by the bankruptcy trustee of the consortium leader and other consortium members who carried out the investment involving the modernisation of approximately 40 kilometres of provincial road No. 776, upholding the judgment dismissing in its entirety the claim against the Małopolska Province – Provincial Road Authority in Krakow, represented by SPCG Law Firm.

This case concerns multi-million claims of key importance among many court proceedings related to the implementation of the above-mentioned investment. The claims included, among others, a demand for payment of contractual penalties for the contractor’s alleged effective withdrawal from contracts for the implementation of individual sections of the investment, determination of the absence of an obligation to pay contractual penalties for withdrawal from contracts by the contracting authority and for the contractor’s delay, as well as, possibly, mitigation of contractual penalties charged by the contracting authority.

The courts of both instances assessed the complex facts of the case, which included several fundamental design and construction problems that arose during the course of the investment. The proceedings were initiated in 2012, and SPCG has been involved in them since 2014.

The Court of Appeal in Krakow agreed with the arguments presented by the representatives of the Małopolska Province – the Provincial Road Authority in Krakow, in particular with regard to the attribution of responsibility for delays in the implementation of the investment, the effectiveness of the Provincial Road Authority in Krakow’s withdrawal from the contracts, the ineffectiveness of the contractor’s competing statement of withdrawal from the contracts, and the lack of grounds for the contractor to charge contractual penalties.

The case was handled by Krystian Radłowski, Partner, and Jacek Budzik, Partner, with the support of Anna Drabik-Ostafin, Senior Associate, as well as in close and effective cooperation with the Legal Advisors Department of the Provincial Road Authority in Krakow.