On the Possibility of Acquisitive Prescription by the State of Real Properties Unlawfully Seized under the Provisions of the 1944 Agrarian Reform Decree

Abstract

The subject of this paper are those factual states that occurred on the basis of the agrarian reform decree and concerned the unlawful seizure by the State of palace-park complexes. It was only after the collapse of real socialism in 1989 that the owners or their legal successors obtained an annulment of the decision to seize the property. However, this was, and is, only the beginning of the struggle, as the State Treasury or its legal successors are claiming before the common courts the acquisitive prescription of the property being the subject to the recovery claim. The divergence of at least 20 years in jurisprudence as to the date of commencement of the period required for acquisitive prescription (1980–1991) is an undesirable phenomenon, requiring the adoption of a coherent approach of the courts. Consequently, the authors of this text represent the view that the period of validity of both the Agrarian Reform Decree and the subsequent legal acts, with particular emphasis on the period of validity of the Decree of 1945 (Journal of Laws no. 28, item 321) and then Article 9 (16) of the Act of 1958 excluded the course of the acquisitive prescription in favour of the State Treasury of the agricultural and forestry properties unlawfully seized by the State. This period lasted until 31 December 1991, i.e. until the final date when Article 9 (16) was in force.