Judge Piotr Schab and the pronounced communal apartment. The court decision does not end the case

Although Judge Piotr Schab was dismissed by the city of Warsaw in August 2020, the judge still lives there. And he went with the city to court.

The Warsaw judges refused to pursue the case because Schab, as the president of the Court of Appeal in Warsaw, has power over them. The case was sent back to Łódź, and the Łódź judges issued a verdict – the city had the right to terminate the lease agreement.

“We already have the verdict in hand. This is a judgment of the first instance and it says directly: Judge Schab does not have a legal title to the premises, therefore he occupies the premises illegally – says Michał Szczerba, MP from the Civic Coalition.

The court in Łódź established the facts. Schab has a house near Warsaw, which he shows in his asset declaration. The house is year-round, located in the district adjacent to the Warsaw district. And such a circumstance enshrined in the Act on the protection of tenants’ rights and the housing resources of the commune is an argument for the fact that the judge is not entitled to a communal flat.

MP Szczerba has been dealing with the case for months. He points out that although the case seems trivial, the prosecutor of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office joined it.

“This participation of the prosecutor only proves that PIS defends himself again. Those judges who are loyal to the authorities, who follow their orders thoughtlessly, can always count on the support of the PiS party prosecutor’s office – comments the politician.

The Prosecutor’s Office, when asked why it is involved in a simple matter of renting a communal apartment, replies that “the basis for the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw to join the ongoing proceedings were – regardless of the applicable legal status regarding the management of communal premises – the circumstances in which the contract was terminated to a judge who entered into tenancy rights of their deceased parents, taking into account the fact that the other premises in the tenement house were not made available to other Varsovians (they remained vacant).

However, Judge Schab is not a rank-and-file judge, so such conduct could have had other grounds.

– Prosecutors have never actually entered into classic property cases. Here it seems that the prosecutor joined the case so that Mr. Schab could receive legal aid for state money – comments Judge Bartłomiej Przymusiński from the Association of Polish Judges Iustitia.

Piotr Schab was politically appointed president of the largest court in Poland – the District Court in Warsaw, and then was promoted to president of the Court of Appeal, which means that all judges from Warsaw are subordinate to him. In addition Zbigniew Ziobro appointed him a disciplinary prosecutor for common court judges.

Schab has often instituted disciplinary proceedings against judges for any trivial reason, which is why judges consciously avalanchely exclude themselves from the case because they do not want to deal with a political spokesman.

The editors of the “Polska i Świat” magazine asked the office of the disciplinary prosecutor of common courts, Piotr Schab, whether he would deal with the case of Judge Piotr Schab. It was asked in October and repeated now. Unanswered.

And there is something to ask. About occupying a flat when three thousand Warsaw families are waiting for municipal premises. The fact that Judge Schab does not have to occupy a communal apartment, because he can live near Warsaw, that he can, which is also noted by the court, rent an apartment on the free market, because, as we read in the justification, he earns over PLN 15,000 net. He could also get a service apartment from the Court of Appeal.

– It is indecent that someone who is responsible for disciplining judges breaks the law himself – comments KO MP Michał Szczerba. In addition to the case brought against the city and lost by Schab in the first instance, there is also an eviction case, which the city brought against Judge Schab. The Warsaw court refused to judge the case against the omnipotent president. Awaiting Supreme Court decision on transfer.

Judge Schab did not answer the questions asked by the editors of “Poland and the World”.