History
History
Zakłady Kórnickie Foundation 1925-1953 and its restitution in 2001.
The “Zakłady Kórnickie” Foundation (FZK) owes its creation to the donation of Jadwiga Zamoyski née Działyński and her son – Władysław Zamoyski, who transferred their property entirely to the Polish nation. Pursuant to the Parliament Act of 30th July 1925, it was the will of the donors that the assets of FZK were indivisible and intended for the purposes described in the Act. This clearly shows that the founders, as well as the contemporary Parliament, wanted to set up a special legal norm that would go beyond the scope of the laws that generally regulate some area of life. These intentions are emphasized by the patronage of the President and the Primate of Poland. The parliament approved the founders’ intentions by creating a lex specialis, which according to legal doctrine is always ahead of lex generalis. The Foundation was established by a special law – just as the donors wanted. This was to protect it from interference from the state power. The Parliament Act of 1925, on the basis of which the FZK maintained the female household schools in Kuźnice and Kórnik, the Kórnik Library, together with the Museum, the Tree and Forest Research Institute (currently the Institute of Dendrology of the Polish Academy of Sciences). In addition to these estates, the Foundation’s assets included: 6,757 ha of arable land, 712 ha of lakes, 4,943 ha of forests, a sawmill, a distillery, residential houses in Kórnik, the Działyński Palace in Poznań and estates in Zakopane with a total area of 6,538 ha. The net income was intended for the implementation of the statutory objectives, including the maintenance of scientific and school facilities.
After World War II
After the end of World War II, by decree of 12th December 1944, the state took over the forests belonging to the FZK, which before the war had yielded 60% of income. The agricultural estates after World War II were completely devoid of livestock. The financial situation of the agricultural estates was catastrophic, and the difficulties in obtaining revolving loans deepened this state of affairs.
In this state of affairs, the authorities of the Foundation – in accordance with the recommendation of the President as the patron of the Foundation – decided to transfer the farms to the State, with the exception that the State was to take over the maintenance of the estates. As long as the Act on FZK was in force, the transfer was made as per management and use. As a result of the arrangements made with the Minister of Agriculture, the agricultural property of FZK was taken over by the State Agricultural Farms. In the same mode, in mid 1949, the School of Home Work for Women in Kuźnice was taken over and after two years it was liquidated. In 1950, the Ministry of Higher Education leased – for a symbolic fee – the Department of Dendrology and Pomology in Kórnik. This rather confusing legal status of the FZK real estate arose more viva facti than legal acts and could be regulated on the occasion of the implementation of the decree of 24th April 1952 on the dissolution of FZK (Journal of Laws No. 25, item 172). There was a necessary substantiation in the art. 5 par. 2 of this Act. During a conference of all interested parties, which was held at the government Inner Cabinet meeting in Warsaw, it was agreed that the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) would take over all the assets of the abolished Foundation and then separate out entities it does not need and transfer them to other departments. In 1953, the Polish Academy of Sciences, “on paper”, took everything over, while in fact only those entities that were owned by the FZK and the Minister of Higher Education and Science. Other real estate was transferred to other ministries. On the other hand, the state-owned farms never wanted to recognize that the resolution of the Inner Cabinet concerned all post-foundation assets, and all the efforts of the Polish Academy of Sciences aimed at regulating relations with state-owned farms did not produce any results.
Foundation restitution
This state of affairs lasted until 1989, when the Agricultural Property Agency of the State Treasury (AWRSP) was established, which took over the agricultural land and the built-up properties that were previously owned by the state-owned farms. The Agency’s task was to sell or lease the acquired agricultural property. This meant that the post-foundation land could be sold. This process began in the area of the Gądki, in the Kórnik commune, where the Agency sold approximately 130 ha of post-foundation land. These activities alarmed people who remained close to the ideas of Działyński and Zamoyski. The first actions towards the restitution of FZK were undertaken by a group lead by the director of the Kórnik Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences – prof. Jerzy Wisłocki. The authorities of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Voivodship Office and the Union of Greater Poland were made aware of the case of the former Foundation. At that time, two possible solutions were considered:
l restitution of the Foundation,
l consolidation of all post-foundation assets under the management of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences expressed the view that the assets of the former Foundation under the management of the Polish Academy of Sciences should be merged. The argument in favor of such a solution was the fact that the Polish Academy of Sciences for 40 years pursued the objectives of the former Foundation with due diligence in the post-foundation estates received in 1953. However, there was no legal means to achieve this goal. Steps to achieve it were taken in 1992 by the Kórnik City and Commune Council, asking the President of Poland, Lech Wałęsa, to reactivate the Foundation. In the process of the activity for the restitution of the Foundation, the Kórnik stage was continued in 1997 by the branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poznań, with its then president, prof. Andrzej B. Legocki. After many discussions and conferences attended by parliamentarians, representatives of the AWRSP, the Poznań branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the position was formulated that the way to restore the Foundation is restitution. Prof. Andrzej B. Legocki received, on 12th April 1997, from the Secretary General of the Polish Academy of Sciences, a notary power of attorney to […] take all actions related to the restitution of the Foundation under the name of “Zakłady Kórnickie” with its registered office in Kórnik, and therefore may represent the Polish Academy of Sciences before all authorities, offices, courts, institutions, legal and natural persons, to submit all declarations, applications, letters […].
From mid-1997, regular meetings were held in the branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poznań organized by prof. A.B. Legocki. First, work began on recording the developed and undeveloped properties of the former FZK. Coordinating these works was entrusted to dr Zbigniew Kalisz. Meetings, during which individual stages of work were discussed, were held at the Polish Academy of Sciences branch in Poznań: 27th May, 16th June, 16th July 1997. They were most frequently attended by: prof. AB Legocki, atty. Mieczysława Szymańska, atty. Rafał Przystański, prof. Jan Węglarz, mgr Teresa Senkus – the director of the Polish Academy of Sciences branch in Poznań, and dr Zbigniew Kalisz. The work done in 1997 enabled atty. R. Przystański’s preparation of the draft of the Act on FZK. At the beginning of 1998, Members of Parliament from Greater Poland became involved in the project. The first meetings were held in a small group with the participation of the MPs: Marcin Libicki and Marek Zieliński. During these meetings, the mode of the parliamentary work on the bill was discussed. MP Libicki, after consulting the UW and AWS parties MPs from Greater Poland, agreed to be the rapporteur for this bill. All activities undertaken in the process were shared with the mass media by prof. A.B. Legocki during press conferences at the Polish Academy of Sciences branch in Poznań, including conferences on 12th January 1998, 14th September 1998, 15th January 1999 and 21st September 2001. The contemporary President of the State Treasury Agricultural Property Agency – Adam Tański – joined, with the agency, in the work on the restitution of the Foundation, issuing orders to suspend the trading of FZK real estate. On 14th September 1998, the MPs of the AWS and UW parties from Greater Poland adopted a position in which “[…] they express their determination to take legislative efforts to restore the Kórnickie Zakłady Foundation and bring the project to realization.”
Following this, on 26th November 1998, the MPs brought the bill on the FZK to the Speaker of Parliament. The bill was sent to the Government and the Committee on Science, Education and Youth, and the Treasury, Enfranchisement and Privatization. The government took a position on the bill (2nd March 1999, 31st August 1999, 13th September 2000). In the first position regarding the bill on the FZK, the Inner Cabinet considered that the establishment of the Foundation on the principles set out in the draft is not justified, because the proposed solutions are contrary to the provisions of the Act of 26th November 1998, on public finances. In addition, in the proposed solutions they indicated the following matters:
l inconsistencies with the provisions of the Act of 12th January 1991, on the Scientific Research Committee, in the scope of creating funding possibilities from the state budget for science being at the disposal of the Chairman of the Committee for Scientific Research, subsidizing scientific institutions by FZK,
l inconsistencies with the provisions of the Act of 25th July 1985, on research and development units in the scope of tasks of scientific units as well as research and development units and their goals.
The Inner Cabinet also noted that the special procedure for establishing a foundation is regulated by the Act of 6th April 1984, on foundations, and pursuant to the provisions of this Act, the applicable procedure for establishing a foundation required notarial declaration of intent on establishing the foundation as well as making an entry in the registry by the appropriate Registry Court. The parliamentary bill – as argued by the Government – provided for the establishment of the FZK by an Act of Parliament – this was due to the lack of appropriate regulations regarding the restoration of the legal existence of the FZK.
Notwithstanding the above, the Inner Cabinet made a number of detailed comments to the bill. At the same time, the Government requested a detailed list of the assets of the future Foundation along with a description of the current legal status of the assets. In the conclusion of its position, the Inner Cabinet stated that the creation of the FZK on the principles set out in the bill was not justified.
With such a development of affairs, prof. A.B. Legocki asked for legal opinion on this matter from prof. Stanisław Sołtysiński. An appropriate opinion, with the participation of prof. Aurelia Nowicka, was prepared and forwarded to the applicants on 4th May 1999. In conclusion it may be read:
1. In the light of the applicable law, there are no legal obstacles to establishing the “Zakłady Kórnickie” Foundation by an Act of Parliament.
2. The establishment of the Foundation by means of a normative act will constitute a separate procedure from the one provided for in the foundation, and therefore the provisions of this act regarding the creation of the foundation by way of a declaration of will (civil law activities) does not apply.
3. Establishing the Foundation by statute is not in contradiction to the Act on public finance, as the adoption of the Act – which is an act constituting a law – can in no way be treated as the creation of a foundation by the State Treasury within the meaning of art. 23 of this Act.
4. We understand that from the point of view of the state’s policy, the legislative initiative implemented by the Government, expressed in the parliamentary bill on the “Zakłady Kórnickie” Foundation, may raise some doubts related to the adoption of the bill, which in a legal sense may be attributed to the nature of the reprivatization act. On the other hand, the special status of the Foundation, established by the Act of Parliament of the Second Polish Republic should be taken into account, whose assets consisted in the goods “given to the Polish Nation” by the representatives of the Działyński and Zamoyski families.
5. While considering the position that foundations should be created from private funds to be correct, we are convinced that in this case this criterion is met, because the newly created legal entity will be allocated the property of the Foundation, abolished by the 1952 decree, which is the legacy of the great families of Greater Poland. Establishing the Foundation by an act of Parliament is the only legal way by which the legitimate goals of the “Zakłady Kórnickie” Foundation can be implemented in the new social and economic conditions with the part of the assets of the abolished Foundation that will be used to equip the Foundation.
6. The adoption of the act will be in accordance with the principles of social justice, which – pursuant to art. 2 of the Constitution – are implemented by the Republic of Poland as a democratic state of law.
This opinion significantly accelerated the legislative work on the bill. In its second position on 31st August 1999, the Government acknowledged:
“[…] for the Foundation’s goals to be legitimate, as defined in art. 5 of the bill, because they refer to the principles of organic work, activities for agriculture, education and culture of the Greater Poland Region, and concern the creation of the basis for model principles of agricultural resources management. ”
The government stated that in the course of further legislative work on the bill it would be necessary to determine the financial impact of the bill’s passing on the state budget. The government’s doubts were also still raised by the provision of art. 8 of the bill, because this provision – according to the Government – did not specify the scope of the legal succession of the foundation in relation to the foundation established under the Parliament Act of 1925. In this situation, the Government proposed suspending the provisions protecting the rights of these entities whose task it is to recognize the former FZK.
With these resolutions, the Government considered that the bill should be the subject of further legislative work where appropriate supplements should be made and the doubts presented in the Government’s position removed. The government decided to formulate a final position after becoming acquainted with the list of the properties of the proposed Foundation, therefore, during the parliamentary work on the bill the Government proposed a number of new amendments. The Speaker of the Sejm – Maciej Płażyński asked the Prime Minister to have the Inner Cabinet again present their position on the proposed bill. In its position, the Inner Cabinet shared the view expressed by the Presidium of the Science, Education and Youth Committee and the Treasury Committee. The government recognized that the bill was special and the proposals contained therein were controversial. However, due to new circumstances (a new interpretation of art. 23 of the Act on public finances of 26th November 1998) the FZK may be established by means of a separate act constituting a special regulation in relation to the procedure of establishing foundations, specified in the Act of 6th April 1984 on foundations. At the same time, the government argued that such a solution would constitute a breach in the principle adopted by the Parliament of Poland, as the statutory objectives of the FZK, in accordance with art. 6 of the bill, would be implemented using the property of the State Treasury, which FZK will be equipped with free of charge. For this reason, the position of the Government submitted to the Parliament of Poland emphasized that during further legislative work on the bill it is necessary to determine the financial consequences to the state budget stemming from the proposed bill. In addition – according to the Government – it was necessary to specify the assets that the future Foundation would be equipped with, as well as their current legal status and property valuation. It was also considered necessary to amend art. 6 of the bill in such a way that after deleting point 2 from para. 1 it would be supplemented with a new introduction, and in result the annex to the bill was to specify the details of the assets transferred to the future Foundation. According to the Government, determining the assets would prevent the possible disposal of individual assets of the Foundation. It was also decided that the transferred assets should not include forests and other real estate managed by the State Forests and national parks, as well as real estate held in perpetual usufruct of the Polish Academy of Sciences or scientific facilities of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In addition, the Inner Cabinet maintained the position that the bill should be subject to further legislative work, in the course of which appropriate supplements should be created and existing doubts removed.
The Commission of the Treasury, Enfranchisement and Privatization, as well as Education, Science and Youth worked on the project until 24th August 2001, when the lower house of Parliament adopted the Act on the FZK, the Senate did the same on 18th September 2001, and on 11th October 2001 the President of Poland signed the act which came into force 3 months after the day of the announcement. These events were preceded by an appeal to the President of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, by the Chairman of the City Council in Kórnik – Seweryn Waligóra and the Mayor of the City and Commune of Kórnik – Zbigniew Kalisz. The appeal included: “On behalf of the local authorities of the City and Commune of Kórnik, we are asking and appealing to you, Mr. President, to sign and thus enforce the Act on the Restoration of the Kórnickie Establishment Foundation. The previous Parliament decided to restore the Foundation with an Act of Parliament […]. We are deeply convinced that you, Mr. President, will consider the appeal that we are making on behalf of the residents and the local authorities of the Kórnik Land and that you will sign the bill adopted by the Parliament.”
Currently, the Foundation manages agricultural land in Wielkopolska with an area of 4,159.00 ha, wither built-up and undeveloped. The Foundation’s organs include a 10-person Board of Curators and a 5-person Foundation Board.
