If, when examining an appeal, a legal issue that raises serious doubts arises, the court may refer the issue to the Supreme Court for resolution, postponing the consideration of the case. The Supreme Court has the power to take over the case for consideration or refer the issue to an enlarged panel of this Court for resolution. The resolution of the Supreme Court resolving a legal issue is binding in a given case. When submitting a legal issue to the Supreme Court for resolution (Article 390 of the Code of Civil Procedure), the court of second instance should indicate why such a decision is necessary for the consideration of an appeal (III CZP 73/97).
In the form of a resolution issued under Art. 391 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the Supreme Court clarifies legal doubts related to the resolution of a given case. However, they should be exclusively legal in nature and cannot also cover the factual element of the case. Resolution of the Supreme Court adopted pursuant to Art. 390 § 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure is binding, in accordance with Art. 390 § 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, only in a given case. Therefore, a court hearing a case initiated by a new action against a person who was not a defendant in the proceedings in which the Supreme Court adopted a resolution resolving a legal issue is not bound by it, even if the subject of both actions is the same claim based on the same factual basis, and in the resolution In this case, the Supreme Court commented on the lack of standing of the defendant in the new case (III CZP 33/2007).
If the Court of Merits fails to comply with the instructions of the court of appeal, which were expressed by the Supreme Court with binding force on it, the contested judgment cannot be upheld for this reason alone. The basic condition for appealing to the Supreme Court under Art. 390 of the Code of Civil Procedure is for the court that presents a specific legal issue to clearly indicate that there are arguments in favor of one of the possible solutions. The legal issue must be formulated and justified in such a way that the Supreme Court has grounds to resolve the doubts presented. The fact that there are different positions of the court and the complainant and its resolution does not automatically mean the existence of a legal issue qualifying for initiating the procedure under Art. 390 kpc (III CZP 100/2006).