Husband not liable for business losses caused by wife's infidelity, Poland's Supreme Court rules

Poland's Supreme Court has ruled that a husband is not obligated to compensate his wife for lost income from their seasonal business, which suffered due to her infidelity. The decision came during divorce proceedings concerning the division of marital assets.

The former wife had appealed a lower court's division of assets, arguing that her husband's alleged deliberate negligence caused their seasonal business, which involved a shop and bar, to lose income. She sought to have these lost profits factored into the asset division.

However, lower courts found no evidence that the business's reduced income was due to the husband's intentional actions. Instead, they determined that the "drastic end" of the marriage and the husband's subsequent loss of interest in the business were directly linked to the wife's "repeated marital infidelity." These marital problems, they concluded, led to the business's contraction and hindered effective management of joint assets.

The Supreme Court upheld this reasoning, clarifying the principles of marital asset division under Polish family law. The court explained that while the division process considers the financial situation at the time of divorce, only the assets present at the time of the division ruling are subject to distribution. Assets lost, sold, destroyed, or consumed after the end of the joint property period (usually divorce) are not automatically included.

However, the court noted that if a spouse can prove that joint assets were sold, squandered, or intentionally destroyed without justification, they can request their value to be accounted for. Such claims are considered compensatory and can include not only actual losses but also lost profits that would have entered the joint marital property, based on Article 415 of the Civil Code concerning damages.