Another unprecedented win for Judge Juszczyszyn. The court ordered Nawacki to reverse his punitive transfer.

The law firm Romanowski i Wspólnicy has obtained an unprecedented ruling ordering the reinstatement of judge Pawel Juszczyszyn in his ‘home’ – the civil department. The judge, after a long battle to return to adjudication, was ‘punitively exiled’ from the civil department, where he had tried for many years, to the family department. The ruling, issued yesterday by the District Court in Bydgoszcz as part of the so-called security measure, is intended to allow the judge to work in the civil department for the duration of the trial, which began with a lawsuit filed by Paweł Juszczyszyn and his attorney Prof. Michał Romanowski to establish the ineffectiveness of the transfer to the family department and for harassment.

The decision of the court in Bydgoszcz gives hope to other unlawfully transferred, harassed and victimised judges!
We continue to fight for independent courts, which are the guarantor of freedom of doing business in Poland.

“I will not be broken, I continue to do my job. The proceedings initiated by me and the lawyers helping me pro bono show that pressure makes sense. And with enough determination victory is possible.” Paweł Juszczyszyn

“This is yet another precedent-setting ruling that shows that the increasingly applied repression of harassment of judges, through their ‘punitive reassignment’ from their home departments – where they have adjudicated for years – to other departments, can be challenged.” Adv. Prof. Michał Romanowski

Read more in the article: HERE

The European Commission cares about competition in the market. It did not select Saudi Aramco or negotiate a deal with Saudi Aramco on behalf of Orlen

Prof. Michał Romanowski, in an interview with a TVN24 journalist for Konkret24.tvn24.pl, comments on reports that the European Commission was to assess the deal to sell Saudi Aramco 30% of Lotos shares in terms of its safety for Poland:

“Lawyer and commercial law expert Prof. Michał Romanowski explains that the Commission, when analysing the merger of Orlen and Lotos, probably pointed out that with the merger of the two companies the market would be dominated by one entity. It therefore indicated the sale of some of the assets as a condition for granting approval for the merger. – In such a situation, it is important that the entity acquiring the assets actually takes control of them. So that there is no situation where the entity selling the assets actually retains control over them,’ says Prof Romanowski.
In the case of the agreement concluded by Orlen with Saudi Aramco, the essence was to give control over the Gdansk Refinery.”.

“Asked about politicians who insist that the sale of shares in the Gdansk refinery company took place under the control of the European Commission, Professor Michał Romanowski replies: – ‘Such statements suggest that the deal passed some test before the European Commission, only that this is not true.'”

“If Orlen had presented the situation fully objectively, it could have said that it was in the interest of the Polish state to give up control of some of the assets that were under state control in order to ensure state security. We are selling the refinery to make it safe. However, they are saying something different: we are merging to make it safer and still maintain control,” notes Prof Romanowski. In his opinion, however, the European Commission would not agree to such a solution.”.

Article available: here.

A revolution in group employment?

It is now common in corporate groups for supervisors or colleagues to be employed by other group companies. In such a case, the employee may claim that his/her actual employer is not the company with which he/she has a contract, but, for example, the group headquarters. This position was confirmed by the Court of Justice of the European Union in a ruling issued in October this year. Pursuing claims against the de facto employer raises significant legal risks for the affected group. Defending against potential employee allegations is possible, but it requires prior preparation.

Lawyer Przemysław Mazur comments on this issue for Gazeta Prawna.

Article available: HERE

Can an employment contract be terminated by email?

The current practice of applying the provisions regulating the form of conclusion and termination of employment contracts is inconsistent with the contemporary realities of business transactions. Nowadays, it is fully justified to assume that the notion “in writing” also includes actions of a written nature performed in documentary form, through electronic communication means (especially e-mail).

The issue of the manner of interpreting the notion ‘in writing’ on the basis of the provisions of the Labour Code is analysed by Przemysław Mazur, advocate, in the pages of the latest issue of the Labour Law Monitor.

Collective redundancies

The Collective Redundancies Act gives a significant degree of discretion as to which employees will be made redundant. However, this freedom does not mean arbitrariness. In a collective redundancy procedure, the employer should specify the criteria for selecting employees for redundancy. These criteria should be objective and fair,” writes legal advisor Przemysław Mazur in an article for prawo.pl.

Link to the article: here

Violation of a shareholder’s personal rights. How is the company manager liable?

Prof. Michał Romanowski comments for Gazeta Prawna on a high-profile corporate dispute concerning a listed company in an article by editor Marzena Sosnowska titled. ‘Violation of a shareholder’s personal rights. How is the company’s manager liable‘.

The essence of the legal problem boils down to the question of whether a manager of a public company can be held liable for the infringement of a shareholder’s personal rights mentioned in the company’s report.

Prof. Michał Romanowski:
“ESPI is used for the communication by the issuer’s management of information from the life of the issuer relevant to investors. Communicating information about a serious conflict whose venue is the general meeting of shareholders, and in particular when the general meeting […] becomes a kind of arena of struggle for control over the company, if the information is communicated in a reliable manner, is not only the right but also the duty of the management board. If there was even a fight at the general meeting, “competing” general meetings were held in parallel, security companies were hired, this is information that […] should be disclosed in the ESPI. This is because they have an impact on the decision to invest in the shares of such a company. […] I would not mix brutalised legal tactics aimed at achieving an effect regardless of the methods with the civil and constitutional concept of respect for human dignity. Unfortunately, on the Polish market of public companies we are still too often dealing with legal tactics straight from the ‘culture of Eastern law’, where mindless force has primacy over rational argument.”

Judge Tuleya files complaint with ECHR for blocking his return to court by Ziobra’s people

Today marks the expiry of the deadline set by the court in the enforcement proceedings for the execution of the final decision ordering Judge Igor Tuleya to be allowed to adjudicate in the Warsaw District Court. The removal of him from adjudication is unlawful, as it took place on the basis of a so-called resolution of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, which was not a court (it did not meet the criteria of independence from the executive). Prof. Michał Romanowski defending the rights of Judge Tuleya defends the rights of all of us. We all have the right to an independent court.

Being business lawyers, we know how important legal security is for business. Independent courts must be the only and final line of defence against the decisions of authorities who are increasingly bold in interfering with economic freedom. An infamous example is the law of 9 February 2022 amending the Code of Commercial Companies, the practical effect of which will be that the compatibility of the actions of company officers with its interests will be decided not by the shareholders, but by the prosecutor, and subsequently by the criminal courts. Professor Michał Romanowski has described in numerous scientific and press publications the importance of the freedom of business and the independence of courts as guarantors of this freedom from executive power (e.g. in an interview for Wyborcza.pl [LINK].

The European Court of Human Rights also guards the Polish courts and our rights. Prof. Michał Romanowski filed a complaint with the ECHR on behalf of Igor Tuleya, in which he alleges that the illegally suspended judge Tuleya was deprived of his right to a trial before an impartial and independent court. The judge cannot appeal against the orders of the court presidents blocking his return to work. The President of the District Court, Joanna Przanowska-Tomaszek, is ignoring the final protective order ordering that Igor Tuleya be allowed to adjudicate. She can also be expected to ignore the court’s order in enforcement proceedings. The next step will be to apply for a fine for failure to comply with the order with conversion to custody. A fine with conversion to custody has already been issued to Maciej Nawacki – the president of the Olsztyn District Court, who ignored the freezing order directing him to allow Pawel Juszczyszyn to adjudicate.

Judge Tuleya complains to the ECHR for blocking his return to court by Ziobra’s people [LINK].

Signallers – a project with no obligation to accept anonymous reports.

The current draft regulation on whistleblower protection does not impose an obligation to accept anonymous reports. The acceptance of such reports will depend on the employer’s decision. However, as the experience of compliance departments shows, rejecting anonymous reports may bring more harm than benefit to the employer. Przemysław Mazur and Klaudia Kowalewska write about this.

Article available: HERE

Neo-KRS instigates non-execution of final judgements in the case of Igor Tuleyi and Pawel Juszczyn!

At our law firm, values matter. The right to an independent court, free from the influence of politicians, is not only a fundamental human right, but also a condition for business freedom. That is why we are committed to defending the rule of law. Barrister Michał Romanowski notifies of a suspected crime committed by members of the current National Council of the Judiciary – the incitement of court presidents not to execute final and enforceable decisions of common courts. We encourage you to read the notice and the statement of Advocate Michał Romanowski. Content: Notice and Statement available at the links.

Congratulations to the Legal Solidarity Fund Scholarship Recipients

Congratulations to the Scholarship recipients of the Legal Solidarity Fund, which was established on the initiative of Professor Adam Bodnar, a member of the Chapter of the Henryk Wujec Civic Fund, and Ms Anna Frankowska, a lawyer, and funded by renowned law firms. The law firm Romanowski i Wspólnicy was the first to support the Fund with an amount of PLN 100,000, then the funders were joined by law firms: Deloitte Legal and the Deloitte Foundation, Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka (DZP), Linklaters, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and White & Case LLP.

We are confident that Dr Liudmyla Dubchak, Dr Nataliia Mushak, Dr Yustyna Samahalska, Dr Natalia Semchuk and Prof Oleksandr Sotula and their research projects will make a great contribution. The scholarship holders will conduct their research projects in cooperation with the University of Warsaw (Faculty of Law and Administration and Faculty of Management), SWPS University (Faculty of Law), Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Department of International Law and International Organisations) and the University of Lodz (Faculty of Law and Administration).

Link