Selected Institutions of the Polish Private Law for the Protection of the Creditor

Abstract

The subject of this article is the issue of the intensity of the protection of interests of a person who has entered into the orbit of obligatory relations. Institutions used to secure a claim are described, but doubts arise when the securities overlap and multiply when the debtor is declared bankrupt. Not every business venture is successful. Often, for reasons beyond the entrepreneur’s control, he is unable to pay debts owed to his creditors. The creditors, on the other hand, aware of the risk of entering into a contract, seek security to be established. Therefore, it is worth considering how the security should be treated in the event of the debtor’s insolvency. The study indicates that the creditor’s “own securities”, both personal and material, take precedence over the creditors who receive priority as a result of the debtor’s ineffectiveness under the provisions on the actio Pauliana. The author defends the position according to which the precedence referred to in Article 532 of the Civil Code is not the absolute precedence. The problems discussed in the study are of great interest for many representatives of the doctrine and courts. Moreover, with regard to their content, the Polish Ombudsman formulated questions about their compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Poland’s adoption of the market economy model makes these problems typical not only for Poland. A number of arguments were put forward to defend the view on the precedence of the security taken by the creditors over the priority granted by the actio Pauliana. To eliminate doubts as to the reciprocal relationship of priorities to pay the claims, an appropriate proposal for the law as it should stand (de lege ferenda) has been put forward.