Actio Pauliana and satisfaction of one of the creditors by the debtor

Bibliogr. s. 163-166

The study is an attempt to solve one of the key issues emerging in situations where the debtor performs the obligation to the hands of one of the his creditors, that is can the other creditor challenge this performance by the Actio Pauliana claim? First, the authors reviewed the Polish literature and the judicature on the subject, arranging the presented views in groups and partially reconstructing them in a more precise language. The authors found that until now the problem had been inadequately framed by the scholars. As a result of interpretation of the text of the normative act (Article 527 and subsequent articles of the Civil Code), it had been assumed that any legal act fulfilling the conditions of the Actio Pauliana can be effectively challenged. The sole exception is the case of the performance of an obligation that does not have its source in a legal act. However, this exception can be applied only if the linguistic interpretation of the provisions at hand is set aside by the arguments of a systemic and functional nature. This exception should, nevertheless, be limited only to a performance of an obligation arising from a source other than a legal act that strictly corresponds to the original content of the obligation. Yet, in practice, claims filed by one creditor against the other (the one that was satisfied) will rarely be considered well founded. The reason behind it is that the fulfilment of the debtor's obligation is usually equivalent to the benefit previously received from the satisfied creditor. Thus, the condition of "harm" set out in Art. 527 § 2 of the Civil Code will not be satisfied.