ATTENTION ! automatic translation from Polish
According to the Supreme Court decision of March 11, 2025 (III USK 326/23), the maintenance obligation under Article 60 of the Family and Guardianship Code is limited in time and this aspect is of primary importance. Thus, if the obligated spouse is a divorced spouse who has not been found guilty of the breakdown of the marriage, this obligation expires if the spouse enters into a new marriage and after five years from the divorce decree, unless due to exceptional circumstances the court, at the request of the entitled person, extends the aforementioned five-year period (Article 60 § 3 of the Family and Guardianship Code).
The expiration of the maintenance obligation after five years from the divorce decree (Family Family and Guardianship Code) excludes the right to a family pension for the divorced spouse (as stated by the Supreme Court in its judgment of 29 July 2020, I UK 10/19, OSNP 2021 No. 4, item 45). Failure to obtain an extension of the five-year period referred to in Art. 60 § 3, second sentence, of the Family and Guardianship Code results in the expiration of the maintenance obligation of the divorced spouse, which means failure to meet one of the conditions necessary for granting a family pension, consisting in having the right to maintenance established by a court judgment or a court settlement on the day of the former husband’s death (Art. 70 sec. 3 of the Pension Act). As a consequence, the expiry of the maintenance obligation (KRO) entails all the consequences that the law associates with the benefit of maintenance (see the Supreme Court decision of 17 February 2022, I USK 403/21, LEX No. 3402684).