Property claims re-emerging in politics and business

A New York-based group is considering lawsuits against U.S. companies that purchased property in Poland with outstanding restitution issues. Before stepping into court, the Holocaust Restitution Committee (HRC), which is seeking the return of property lost by Polish Jews during and after World War II, is trying to persuade Polish and U.S. politicians to negotiate a settlement. The group arranged a hearing in U.S. Congress on restitution issues while President Aleksander Kwaśniewski paid a state visit to Washington, D.C. "The hearing was held to explore Polish, Czech and Romanian lack of restitution, and problems with that for American citizens," said Edward Klein, one of the two lawyers who in 1999 filed in U.S District court in Brooklyn, N.Y., a property restitution lawsuit against Poland. "The conclusion was that (U.S.) President (George W.) Bush will be asked to speak to President Kwaśniewski about the issue." Antoni Feldon, a representative of Polish restitution organizations, was also present at the hearing. "The issue is not going to go away - it has to be solved one way or another," Klein added. The HRC will plan lawsuits against U.S. companies that purchased property in Poland with outstanding claims by pre-war owners if political pressure doesn't work. "It's the next stage, " Klein said. Kwaśniewski's visit to the United States last week brought property restitution back as a headline issue. According to Krzysztof Łaszkiewicz, deputy treasury minister in the previous government, as many as 3 million people in Poland have rights to some compensation. Since the early 1990s, successive Polish governments have failed to implement a restitution law stirring international controversy and leaving the country open to potentially expensive lawsuits. During a meeting with the Jewish community at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Kwaśniewski said he would support just and realistic restitution law "so that obligations assumed by the state were not unfeasible."

Proposal meets skepticism The Treasury Ministry is working on a new restitution draft law that should be ready this fall, according to Prime Minister Leszek Miller. It would be applied only in cases where the country's communist-era nationalization law was broken. But many Polish owners who lost their property due to nationalization after 1945 no longer believe a restitution law is possible. They are ready to seek the return of their property in Polish courts. "The currently prepared draft law is only playing for time," said Łaszkiewicz, a co-organizer of the National Reprivatization Center (KCR). The center's goal is to assist pre-war owners seeking return of their confiscated property. "(The current government) wants to show they're doing something about restitution," Łaszkiewicz said. "It's a message especially being sent abroad. But under the current political environment there is no chance for a decent law that would solve the problem. President Kwaśniewski himself confirmed such an opinion by sending the owners to courts in 2001." Last year, Kwaśniewski vetoed a restitution bill proposed by former Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek's government and approved by Parliament. He argued that a restitution law that would fully satisfy the claims of Polish owners would ruin the economy. "The best way to solve the restitution problem is to go with one's claims to court," he said.

In with the old Łaszkiewicz said the latest draft law might be similar to legislation proposed by former Prime Minister Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz's government in 1994. "At that time, the Sejm decided the draft wasn't compatible with the Polish Constitution," Łaszkiewicz said. "The currently prepared proposal, like the one submitted by Cimoszewicz's cabinet, applies only to cases in which the nationalization law was broken." "Under the currently prepared restitution law, owners would have the right for 10% compensation (from the state treasury) but if they go to court they can get 100%," he added. "This means that the draft law is again incompatible with the Constitution. It's a kind of nationalization of the right for compensation." According to Łaszkiewicz, there might soon be as many as 170,000 claims submitted to Polish courts. "I know it's absurd that in Poland owners have to claim their rights for property on the basis of a nationalization law that was created to negate private property, but it's the only way that has proved effective," he said.