Former councilor wins "against mayor's propaganda", but case stuck in appeal

Almost 2 years ago, then councilor Mirosław Marzec won a lawsuit "against municipal propaganda". The verdict was not final, and both parties filed an appeal. The case was stuck in court for many months. No trial date was set. When our editorial team asked about it a few days ago, something suddenly moved. After many months, a judge was finally appointed.

In September 2023, the District Court in Wrocław issued a verdict in a high-profile case. Councilor Mirosław Marzec filed a lawsuit against Sebastian Hawryliszyn. He is an official and editor-in-chief of "Panorama Trzebnicka". He also filed a lawsuit against the publisher of the municipal bulletin, GCKiS.

The councilor pointed out that his personal rights were violated in the publications published in "Panorama Trzebnicka" - the propaganda bulletin of the commune. He demanded an apology and the removal of the defamatory articles.

The court case lasted several months. Mayor Marek Długozima and Sebastian Hawryliszyn testified.

Let us recall that it all began in October 2020. It was then that the largest protest and march took place in Trzebnica, which were the aftermath of the controversial judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal tightening abortion law in Poland. Hundreds of people gathered in front of the basilica, who then marched through the streets of the city. The next day, it turned out that someone had painted an offensive slogan: "Catholic Church Murderers of Women Rapists of Children" on church buildings and on the wall surrounding the mayor's house.

On October 28, 2020, Marek Długozima posted on his Facebook page, writing among other things:

"Today, however, I have reason to believe that the author of the inscription on my house may probably be Mirosław Marzec himself or a person who participated in the protest the day before, inspired by his attitude and actions."

He also accused the councilor of being the one who inspired the protest to pass by his house. He wrote that the councilor was spreading hatred towards him and that is why he is now reporting the whole matter to the police.

Mirosław Marzec also reported the matter to the police, claiming that he had been slandered by the mayor. He also requested that the monitoring be secured and provided the monitoring from his estate, the recording of which confirms that he was at home, so he could not have painted the inscriptions. The police have not identified the perpetrators to this day.

A few days after the mayor's post on FB, the same text appeared in the local government newspaper "Panorama Trzebnicka", which is financed from public money, and therefore from taxes paid by the councilor. The article was published in the column "Subjective eye of the mayor". And for this, the councilor sued the publisher and the chief of the local government.

During his testimony in court, Marek Długozima admitted that he had written the article. It also turned out that the mayor had virtually unlimited access to the municipal newspaper and that he had been running this column for 10 years. He added that he had never been refused publication. He claimed that everyone wanted to know the mayor's opinion.

The councilor’s representative asked if he called Mr. Marc and asked if he was the initiator of these inscriptions?

- I am not a journalist and I do not have to comply with journalistic integrity. I only wrote that such hate speech can lead to tragedy. Thank God nothing bad happened - the mayor defended himself in court.

When the attorney asked about Hawryliszyn, Długozima admitted that he was employed at the commune office and at the same time at... the cultural center. He admitted that he was subordinate to him, but not directly, because he is indeed the head of the office, but the head of the department is someone else.

Although the last hearing was held on February 7, 2023, the verdict was put on hold for several months. In June, our newspaper asked the court what was causing the delay.

- The reason for the waiting time for the verdict is the very heavy workload of judges in civil divisions and instances, which results in an extended time between taking subsequent actions - the spokeswoman for the Wrocław court wrote to us at the time.

We became interested in the case again in September 2023. We indicated that the verdict was to be issued in a closed session due to COVID regulations. The problem is that the pandemic has long since passed. After 10 days, we received a response from the court. The spokesperson again indicated the workload of the courts. She gave the number of cases that the judge had, but we also learned that the day before the response was sent to us... the judge issued a verdict. We don't know if it was a coincidence, but we clearly noticed that everything began to accelerate when we asked questions in court.

The verdict was devastating. The court found both Sebastian Hawryliszyn and the Municipal Cultural and Sports Centre guilty of violating the personal rights of councillor Mirosław Marzec.

He ordered the defendants Sebastian Hawryliszyn and the Municipal Centre of Culture and Art in Trzebnica to cease violating the personal rights of the plaintiff Mirosław Marc, in the form of his good name, and obliged the defendants to remove the entire article entitled "Where Does Hate Speech Lead" by Mr. Marek Długozima from the website of "Panorama Trzebnicka" within 14 days of the judgment becoming final.

Moreover, he obliged them to publish in the next issue of "Panorama Trzebnicka", counting from the date the ruling becomes final, both in the paper version and in the online edition, on the first page of the issue, the apology requested by the councilor. The apology is to be published in a font of an appropriate size and type.

But that's not all. The court also ordered the defendants to publish an apology in our newspaper, "Nowa Gazeta Trzebnicka", within 14 days from the date the ruling becomes final. It is to be published on the first page of the issue. This means that Hawryliszyn and GCKiS will have to cover the costs of such an announcement.

The court dismissed the claim for payment of a specified sum for a social purpose and also abolished the mutual costs of the proceedings between the parties. The judgment was not final.

At the request of the parties, the judge prepared a written justification of the judgment. The parties had 30 days to file an appeal, and both of them exercised this right. Let us recall that the judgment in the first instance was issued on September 21, 2023.

In the meantime, new elections were held. Mirosław Marzec did not make it to the council. Mayor Marek Długozima took office, but after repeated elections, and there is no appeal.

On March 24 this year, we decided to ask the District Court in Wrocław what was happening with the case. We wanted to know if the files had been forwarded to the appeal and if a verdict had been issued. The next day, we received an answer:

- We would like to inform you that both the plaintiff and the defendant filed an appeal and the case was transferred to the Court of Appeal for the purpose of considering the appeal on January 31, 2024. In the scope of the question about the date of the appeal hearing and the judgment, please contact the court of second instance - the spokeswoman of the district court informed us.

This means that the case files were submitted for consideration well over a year ago. That same day we sent questions to the Court of Appeal, especially since we learned from Mirosław Marzec that there was no date set or even a judge. He told us that nothing had happened with the case for over a year, and he was still waiting for justice.

On the same day, March 25 this year, Małgorzata Lamparska - spokesperson for civil cases, replied that "the case is waiting for a hearing to be scheduled" . She also gave us a new reference number.

- After your questions, something suddenly moved in court - Mirosław Marzec told us on Tuesday and added: - I just saw on the court portal that a judge was finally appointed to the case on April 1. The date of the hearing has not been announced yet, but I hope it will happen soon - he added, joking that he hopes it is not April Fools.

This is not the only case that has ended up in the “court freezer”. Almost 2 years ago, on April 26, 2023, the District Court in Wrocław issued a judgment in a case brought against the Municipality of Trzebnica by KOWR. The case concerned the return of money for donated plots of land at Czereśniowa Street.

The court of first instance ordered the Municipality of Trzebnica to pay to KOWR the amount of PLN 4,518,000 (four million five hundred eighteen thousand zlotys) along with statutory default interest from February 1, 2022 until the date of payment of approximately PLN 1.6 million.

The commune was also to pay KOWR the amount of PLN 215,000 as reimbursement of the costs of the proceedings. The judgment was not final and the Trzebnica Commune filed an appeal.

We were able to establish that the case file was transferred to the Court of Appeal on December 14, 2023.

For several months, every now and then, we asked if a date had been set for the appeal. The answer was always the same: - No date has been set yet. We asked again at the end of January this year.

- The deadline for the case has been set for April 15, 2025 - replied Małgorzata Lamparska, spokeswoman for the Court of Appeal.

The case ended with a final judgment (we wrote about it in the previous issue - editor's note). The Court of Appeal dismissed the municipality's appeal and upheld the judgment. The municipality must return over PLN 6.1 million to KOWR and also cover court costs, which amounted to PLN 426,000.