Settling with the past

Poland's lack of a property restitution law could soon become a costly oversight. A court verdict in Gdańsk next month may open the floodgates for thousands of similar claims costing the state treasury billions of złotys. Andrzej Czerniewski and his niece are seeking nearly zł. 500,000 in compensation for property lost when Czerniewski's father was booted from his land in Vilnius (until World War II part of Poland) and resettled in Poland's "regained" German territories. Czerniewski, like 1.7 million of other relocated Poles, was supposed to receive property equal to the value of his own, but this never happened. Today, more than a year after President Aleksander Kwaśniewski quashed Poland's latest attempt to establish a restitution law, his son and granddaughter have turned to the court system for help. The Gdańsk court is expected to present its final decision in early August.

If the court rules in favor of the Czerniewskis - something that has never happened for Poles who lost their property because the borders shifted - descendents of Poland's other 1.7 million resettled citizens could seek similar retribution through the legal system. If that happens, the financial toll on the budget would be devastating. Which is why Kwaśniewski vetoed the legislation last year. He said that even compensating claimants for 50% of the value of their lost properties would be unaffordable. But as many predicted, Kwaśniewski's kibosh has not been enough to deter plaintiffs or at least those who are willing to expend the time, effort and cash to take their cases to court. The net result is that even paying half the value of these properties could be far less than what Poland may have to shell out in the coming years. Crafty lawyers, after all, are pushing their clients to go for 100%, and Poland's younger generation of judges is more sympathetic to restitution claims than their predecessors.

For more than a decade, experts warned successive Polish governments that not coming up with even a watered-down version of the law would have dire financial consequences for the country's budget. That time appears to be just over the horizon. As Witold Daniłowicz, the executive partner at White & Case law firm, put it in this week's cover story, Poland has dragged its feet for so long on the issue because most Poles just don't care. The reason? Most citizens benefited from property nationalization and now have little incentive to support those whose land was confiscated. How the court will rule in the Czerniewskis' case will be interesting. Perhaps the threat of forking out billions in claims in future years will be enough for the present government to produce a restitution bill of its own - and ensure that with Kwaśniewski's backing it is passed.