Przedawnienie typowych roszczeń regresowych ubezpieczycieli
Limitation of standard insurers’ recourse claims

Summary/Abstract: Claims barred by statute of limitation, prescription and concealment are strictly connected with the legal consequences resulting from the passage of time. The aim of limitation of insurance claims is to delay creditor’s possibility to effectively recover the material claims. This institution is said to introduce a stabilization of legal relationship on the market and play an educational role as far as a creditor is considered. Limitation of claim is accepted at the request of a party entitled, however the court is not accepting it automatically. It should be highlighted that the limitation of claims is not equal with it expiration. Limitation causes a change of claim character by transferring this claim into a natural claim. This claim still exists and a person is obliged to satisfy it. Polish Civil Code distinguishes three groups of provisions regulating the limitation of claims. The first group are the provisions lex generalis included in article 117-125 of the Civil Code. The second group are the provisions regulating claims pertaining to the specific task contract, agreement forwarding, insurance agreement. The third group are the provisions pertaining to claims of specific entities claims: mutual claims of a producer and a contracting party, claim of a tenant against a landlord. Limitation of claims of an insurer is said to occur only in case when there is so called trilateral commitment. In this commitment, an injured party is connected with a perpetrator and a perpetrator is connected with an insurer. In the consequence, as far as standard recourse is concerned, an insurer gains the initial claim of an insured. Deadline for a recourse of this type of claims is the same as the moment of recourse deadline for an injured party claim against a perpetrator. Many controversy concerning the way of calculating limitation period has appeared Some experts are of the opinion that these type of claim is connected with the business activity conducted by an insurer. There is also an opinion that this type of claim results from an insurance agreement and the limitation period should be determined according to it. The following article analyses the provisions concerning the limitation of claims included in the Civil Code. The author summarizes opinions of experts and the jurisdiction concerning the limitation period.

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