The elements of deception within the meaning of Article 86 of the Civil Code.

How is fraud defined?

The Civil Code does not contain a definition of deceit as referred to in Article 86 of the Civil Code, nor does it specify the form that the conduct of a person accused of deceit should take. However, a definition can be reconstructed on the basis of judgments handed down under the aforementioned provision.

A fraudulent act consists of deliberately causing another person to form a mistaken impression of the actual state of affairs, with the aim of inducing them to make a specific declaration of intent. Deceptive conduct is always ethically reprehensible, regardless of the perpetrator’s motives and the consequences of their actions, as it aims to disrupt another person’s decision-making process and lead them, on the basis of suggested false premises of reasoning, to make a specific declaration of intent. The ethical reprehensibility of deceit has led to the civil law treating the consequences of the error it causes with severity. (See the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Katowice of 18 June 2020, case no. V ACa 79/20).

Any conduct that causes or reinforces a mistaken perception of reality in another person may constitute deceitful conduct.

This may consist of false assurances on the part of the other party, the concealment of facts, false promises and lies which give rise to a specific, erroneous perception of reality on the part of the person making the statement. Assurances regarding specific future conduct may also constitute fraud (see the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Warsaw of 13 November 2019, case no. I ACa 268/19).

In the case of fraud, unlike in the case of error as defined in Article 84 of the Civil Code, it is possible to avoid the consequences of a defective declaration of intent even where the false belief on the part of the person making the declaration does not concern the content of the legal transaction, but rather circumstances outside it, in particular the motives for carrying out the transaction.

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