Właściwość stosunku prawnego w przypadku najmu rzeczy ruchomej. Glosa do uchwały Sądu Najwyższego z dnia 11 stycznia 2018 r., III CZP 93/17

Abstrakt

The Polish Supreme Court case concerns the validity of a contractual provision that empowers the lessor to repossess goods, whilst retaining the right to collect rent from the lessee. The Supreme Court based its conclusions on the principle of freedom of contract and its limits. The Court ruled that the contractual clause was inconsistent with the nature of the legal relationship arising out of the lease contract, due to the lack of reciprocity. The rent ceased to be the equivalent of giving goods for use. Consequently, the provision is void under Article 3531 in connection with Article 58 of the Polish Civil Code. In this paper, the conclusions and findings made by the Supreme Court were deepened and evaluated. Other legal issues that appear during the analysis of the judgment were also commented upon. Those include liquidated damages, the scope of the freedom of contract in business transactions and the difficult financial situation of the debtor. The author endorses most of the Supreme Court's reasoning and finds the case to make an important contribution to understanding freedom of contract in today's meaning.