Wielkopolskie

3rd February 2012

The Archdiocese of Poznan is demanding PLN 6.5 mln from Poznan City Hall in return for using its property without permission and is taking the authority to court. The long-running argument concerns Poznan’s High School number 8, which was illegally appropriated from the Church back in 1956.

At the first hearing this Monday the court refused a request from City Hall to send the matter to arbitration, because lawyers representing the Church were against it. “We consider it a delaying tactic. If they haven’t made any moves in that direction in well over a year since we sued, we can only assume they’re not interested in a settlement. The only option is to settle things in court,” commented Mikolaj Drozdowicz, representing Poznan Archdiocese.

The church is demanding the massive sum for the use of the site since March 2007 to the present day, both for the use of the school building, the land it stands on, the car park on its terrain, the use of external walls for billboards and the roof for a mobile telephone mast, and is demanding court experts establish the precise sum.
“It appears that the City is aware it’s using someone else’s property, carrying out certain activities there and behaving as if nothing was the matter,” Drozdowicz told reporters.

However, Henryk Kuligowski, representing Poznan City Hall, said there was still an opportunity to settle the matter out of court. “The city represents the local community, the Archdiocese represents the community of the faithful, we should try to reconcile this. We have an initial declaration from the Church, but I can’t say any more for now,” Kuligowski commented.

Part of the City’s argument is that the Church leases a number of buildings from the authority for a peppercorn rent and that it’s not unreasonable to expect a little reciprocation. “The City subsidises repairs to historic churches and has over the years spent millions supporting the religious community,” added Kuligowski.

The Church has already received PLN 4.7 mln in compensation from the Treasury covering the period from 1956 to 2007. The Archdiocese states that any money received from the City will be used for charitable and educational purposes by Caritas. Negotiations over the matter have been ongoing since September 2008.