The Sejm will exclude animals from bailiff execution

On Friday, a parliamentary confederation project was sent to further work in the parliamentary commission, which aims to completely exclude and exclude animals as a subject of bailiff enforcement. “Animals, these are not things,” argued MPs participating in the debate.

“As a law student, in the 1990s, I was amused by one archaic, relict provision from the Code of Civil Procedure. Meanwhile, it is a provision that is still in force” – said Przemysław Wipler (Confederation).

As he pointed out, it is about the regulation, under which bailiff executions are not subject to “one cow or two goats or three sheep needed to eat the debtor and the members of his family being maintained along with the supply of feed and litter for the nearest collections.” The proposal predicts to replace this phrase in one word – “animals”. This would mean completely excluding animals from bailiff executions.

“Someone who has never had a friend with four paws, he will not explain it to him, and you do not need to explain it to others” – noted Wipler. He added that the current provision does not match modern times and “only a student may not pass the exam in civil law, because he will mistake sheep with goats.”

MPs participating in the debate generally supported the proposed amendment to the KPC. They argued that “animals are not things”, and – on the other hand – bailiffs do not want to make such executions, because they do not have conditions for storing animals and caring for them.

Deputy Minister of Justice Arkadiusz Myrcha also admitted that such bailiff activities are rare. However, as he pointed out – the issues of bailiffs' animals already deal with numerous restrictions arising from, for example, the Animal Protection Act. “If this project were more comprehensive, we would have a fuller debate,” noted the deputy head of MS.

At the same time, Myrcha asked whether the proposed total ban on such executions was comprehensively thought out. He indicated, for example, examples of large entrepreneurs breeding valuable animals – for example horses. “What if the debtor began to invest in such animals? He would be inviolable then,” he said.

Wipler replied to the deputy minister that the bailiff's occupation should rather be subject to funds from possible sale by the debtor of such animals. “Until the sale of an animal for the breeder is a source of costs,” he noted.

The project will now be dealt with by the Sejm Extraordinary Commission for changes in codification, to which a deputy's proposal was sent. (PAP)

MJA/ MRR/