Przedawnienie roszczenia Ubezpieczeniowego Funduszu Gwarancyjnego oraz zakładu ubezpieczeń wobec kierującego pojazdem lub posiadacza pojazdu
The Limitation Period for Claims Brought by the Insurance Guarantee Fund and by the Insurance Company against the Driver or Owner of the Vehicle

Summary/Abstract: This article analyses a legal issue that continues to raise doubts and that concerns the limitation period for recourse claims brought by the Insurance Guarantee Fund against drivers who caused accidents and/or against uninsured vehicle owners. Although the Act on Compulsory Insurance, Insurance Guarantee Fund (IGF) and the Polish Motor Insurers' Bureau of 22 May 2023 grants the IGF the right to recover compensation paid, the provision regulating the limitation period for those claims (Article 110(4) of the Act) is, in Polish case law, a subject of disputes as to its interpretation and still remains unresolved. The essence of the debate focuses on whether Article 110(4) establishes a fixed three-year limitation period, which starts to run from the date of compensation payment by the IGF, or whether it is subject to rules that are laid down more broadly in the Polish Civil Code. The analysis presented in this article is in line with the Supreme Court ruling of 6 November 2013, case IV CSK 120/13, which is of key importance for this issue and speaks in favor of the latter interpretation. According to this stance, the applicable limitation period depends on the nature of the act that caused damage. In the authors' opinion, a determination whether the person liable for compensating the damage is the same person who caused the damage plays a major role for the correct assessment of the limitation period for claims. Consequently, this article introduces a distinction between the situation of the perpetrator of the damage and the situation of the vehicle holder who is not the perpetrator of the damage.

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