The Pomeranian voivode, known at the time as Dariusz Drelich, faced a serious legal lapse that involved failing to set the compensation due to Gdańsk for the Westerplatte land plot. The provincial administrative court found this action to be a breach of law, and the judgment was later deemed invalid. The Pomeranian Voivodeship Office is presently reviewing the court’s decision as part of its ongoing assessment of the case. [Citation: wPolityce]
Drelich held the post of Pomeranian Voivode through the PiS administration until December 2023. The contested decision by the Provincial Administrative Court concerns the compensation for how the Ministry of Finance acquired land on Westerplatte, a site that belongs to Gdańsk, in 2020 for the construction of the Museum of Westerplatte and the 1939 War. The Museum of the Second World War was identified as the investor in the project. The special Westerplatte law outlines a specific process for granting compensation to the city for this tract. [Citation: wPolityce]
Details of the provincial administrative court’s ruling, issued after a closed hearing on January 10, first emerged through Radio Zet. The judgment is accessible on the Central Database of Administrative Court Judgments website. [Citation: wPolityce]
In a separate case where Gdańsk Municipality challenged the voivodeship for failing to act on compensation for expropriated real estate, the court affirmed that the Pomeranian Voivodeship had acted in a gross violation of the law. [Citation: wPolityce]
The Provincial Administrative Court ordered the Pomeranian Voivodeship, with Beata Rutkiewicz taking office in December 2023, to resolve the matter within 90 days upon receipt of the final judgment and associated case files, and it awarded the complainant PLN 10,000 as compensation for the voivode’s ineffective handling of the proceedings. [Citation: wPolityce]
The Westerplatte land dispute stemmed from a prolonged process over valuation. The city of Gdańsk argued the land was worth nearly PLN 19 million, while the Museum of the Second World War commissioned its own appraisal, which valued the plot at PLN 3.7 million. That figure was later revised to PLN 7.6 million. With no agreement reached, the matter moved to the Pomeranian Voivodeship and an administrative process began in early January 2021 to determine the compensation. An appraisal ordered by the then-voivode Dariusz Drelich valued the Westerplatte land at PLN 13.1 million. [Citation: wPolityce]
No decision on the amount of compensation
Despite the two-year window, the voivode did not determine the compensation amount for Gdańsk, and in the spring of 2023 he proposed the option of waiving compensation entirely. On July 31, 2023, Gdańsk authorities filed a complaint about the inaction by the Pomeranian Voivodeship. The provincial administrative court noted that the municipality had urged the voivode to decide the compensation within 14 days of delivering the final award and case files, under the special laws, and requested a formal declaration of passive conduct and a finding that such passivity violated rights. [Citation: wPolityce]
In its reasoning, the court explained that with only two parties involved — the City of Gdańsk and the Museum of the Second World War as the investor — the voivode’s repeated extensions for reviewing and commenting on evidence and claims, including those introduced by the interested party, could be seen as deliberate delays in the process. [Citation: wPolityce]
Further, the court noted that the deadline for resolving the case was extended three times due to the need to verify compliance with formal and legal requirements and to assess the evidentiary value of submitted materials. [Citation: wPolityce]
According to the Provincial Administrative Court, the facts clearly show the Pomeranian Voivodeship was inactive in the Westerplatte land compensation proceedings, marking a gross violation of the law. [Citation: wPolityce]
The court emphasized that the lengthy proceedings harmed the complainant by depriving them of substantial compensation. This harm was aggravated by the fact that the authority charged with the case had no doubts about the key evidence, namely the valuation report prepared at its request. There were no circumstances preventing a decision to resolve the case. [Citation: wPolityce]
Krystian Kłos of the Pomeranian Voivodeship Office in Gdańsk told PAP that the office is reviewing the verdict and will issue a statement later. The press secretary for the mayor of Gdańsk, Daniel Stenzel, told PAP that no decisions have been made and that the matter will be discussed with the new Pomeranian Voivode Beata Rutkiewicz. [Citation: wPolityce]
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mly/PAP [Citation: wPolityce]
Source: wPolityce [Citation: wPolityce]