Advocate Maciej Obrębski and attorney-at-law Roman Radosław Gospodarczyk represented the heirs of the former owner in proceedings seeking the return of real property located in Bydgoszcz, expropriated in the 1950s for the construction of the “Brda” tram line.
The Voivodeship Administrative Court in Bydgoszcz dismissed the complaint filed by the Municipality of Bydgoszcz against the decision of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivode. In doing so, the Court confirmed the correctness of the administrative ruling, under which part of the land – no longer used for the purpose for which it was expropriated – must be returned.
The case also has an important historical dimension. Expropriations during the People’s Republic of Poland were often carried out under the regime of “national economic plans” (including on the basis of the Decree of 26 April 1949), and the scope of the land taken was sometimes broader than was actually necessary to implement the investment. Decades later, it is not uncommon to find that part of the property was never developed in line with the declared purpose – opening the way for legal successors to seek its return.
The Firm’s work encompassed comprehensive conduct of the matter: from the administrative stage, through preparing submissions and defending the authorities’ decisions in judicial administrative proceedings, to support in steps aimed at recording the effects of the decision in the land and mortgage registers. After the dispute ended, the Starosta of Żnin notified the land and mortgage register court of the change of ownership, indicating as the legal basis the final decision of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivode.