ATTENTION ! automatic translation from Polish
According to art. 27 of the Family and Guardianship Code, both spouses are obliged, each according to their strength and their earning and financial capabilities, to contribute to meeting the needs of the family they have established through their union. Fulfillment of this obligation may also consist, in whole or in part, in personal efforts to raise children and work in a common household.
In its decision of 11 March 2025 (III USK 326/23), the Supreme Court took a position on the doubts expressed as to whether the right to maintenance may be embedded in art. 60 of the Family and Guardianship Code, or also in art. 27 of the Family and Guardianship Code. In the resolution of 13 July 2011, III CZP 39/11 (OSNC 2012 No. 3, item 33), the Supreme Court assumed that the previous obligation to pay maintenance based on Article 27 of the Family and Guardianship Code expires with the divorce decree. In the justification, it was noted that there is a similarity between the obligation established in Article 27 of the Family and Guardianship Code and the obligation to pay maintenance (Article 128 of the Family and Guardianship Code and Article 60 of the Family and Guardianship Code), but there can be no question of the identity of these obligations. At most, one can speak of the „maintenance nature” of the obligation to contribute to meeting the needs of the family. To be more specific, during the marriage there is no obligation to pay maintenance in the strict sense. A direction of legal interpretation consistent with the one described above was presented in the resolutions of the Supreme Court: of 5 October 1982, III CZP 38/82 (OSNCP 1983 No. 23, item 31); of 20 October 2010, III CZP 59/10 (with a comment by M. Iżykowski, Polski Proces Cywilny 2012 No. 3, p. 333) and the judgment of the Supreme Court of 9 March 2011, III UK 84/10 (OSNP 2012 No. 7-8, item 100).
This direction of legal interpretation is also approved by resolution III UZP 2/17 and the position of the Constitutional Tribunal (see resolutions: of 6 March 2012, Ts 134/09, OTK-B 2012 No. 4, item 320; of 24 July 2012, Ts 134/09, OTK-B 2012 No. 4, item 321).