ZASADA JEDNOŚCI SZKODY
PRINCIPLE OF THE UNITY OF LOSS

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to answer the question whether Polish law recognizes the principle of unity of loss. Not all results of a tort may be identified right after the tort has been committed. Some damages will become exposed immediately but other may take months or even years to manifest themselves. This rises the question whether newly exposed damages constitute a new loss or they are a part of already existing one. In other words: does one tort committed against one person result in one loss or it many different losses? The word „loss” in the Polish law regulations on liability for damages is always used in a singular and not in a plural form. But it is not the wording of the articles but the coherence of the system of civil liability, that is the strongest argument for the principle of the unity of a loss. A loss is not a fact, it is a legal qualification in the properties of person suffering damages. Destroyed car or a broken arm are not losses, but they are legal effects of the destruction of a car or breaking an arm. A loss is a difference between the value of property after the tort has been committed and value of the same property if the tort would have never been committed. This is why we should not use the term a „new loss” but rather a „dynamic loss”. The second issue is whether the principle of unity of a loss and the procedural rule of res iudicata may prevent an injured for claiming for damages that arose after the a judgment has been given. Res iudicata prohibits the claimant from initiating legal proceeding in the case already closed, however because of the dynamic character of the loss, it may not always be possible to evaluate or foresee the full extent damages during the legal proceeding. The claimant will not breach the principle of unity of loss or res iudicata when claiming for new damages if those damages are an effect of new circumstances that become known after the legal proceeding has ceased.

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