The Supreme Court clarified the commencement of the limitation period for claims seeking the recovery of public land
The Supreme Court, in case No. 4KGPR2579K1, examined a dispute concerning the application of the statute of limitations to claims for the recovery of public land, clarifying that the limitation period begins to run from the moment the public authority discovers the violation, rather than from the date of the underlying transaction or the registration of rights. This position is aimed at ensuring effective protection of public interests in situations where information about the unlawful disposal of a land plot becomes known significantly later.
The essence of the case was that a land plot belonging to a public-law entity had left public ownership under a transaction subsequently declared void. The competent authority filed a claim to recover the plot several years after the registration of the new owner’s rights. The defendant argued that the threeyear limitation period had expired. The Supreme Court, analyzing the circumstances, noted that the authority learned of the violation only after conducting an inspection, and that this moment should be considered the starting point of the limitation period.
The Supreme Court’s legal position underscores the need to take into account the specifics of publiclaw relations and the inadmissibility of applying a purely formal approach when calculating the limitation period, particularly when the factual circumstances of the violation may be concealed or discovered only in the course of supervisory or control activities.
