At a time when they should be enjoying their retirement, some of the most senior members of Canberra's Polish community are divided by a bitter million-dollar dispute set to decide the fate of their 60-year-old ex-servicemen's club.
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Against a background of soaring legal fees, the dispute recently led to an 88-year-old Polish World War II veteran being told police would be called if he did not leave a meeting of the Canberra sub-branch.
The controversy began in 2009, when members of the Polish Ex-Servicemen's Association sub-branch No. 5 - covering Canberra and district - agreed to surrender their sub-lease for their licensed Civic premises, 15 years into a 90-year agreement. They were given $1.35 million to leave the Moore Street club, a sum - according to Supreme Court submissions - received by their lawyers in late August that year and promptly paid to the national organisation or branch of the ex-servicemen's association. The sub-branch also said another $180,000, the full amount in its operating account, was transferred to the national body's account in September. The transfers to the national body - which today's leadership of sub-branch No. 5 argues came without consent from Canberra - became critical after the Brisbane-based national executive committee decided to dissolve the sub-branch following a failed attempt to hold its annual meeting that July.
Bernard Skarbek, 92, has served 16 times as president of the sub-branch, and said the transfer of money to the national branch was appropriate.
''That was the proper procedure, all monies and property belongs to the branch,'' Mr Skarbek said.
The sub-branch's 1993 constitution in fact states all assets of the national and Canberra bodies are jointly owned.
An officer in the Second Polish Corps during World War II, Mr Skarbek is no longer on the local committee, but has from 2005 served as the national body's public officer. He said the dwindling number of Polish ex-servicemen in Canberra had agreed to dissolve the sub-branch.
It's a view rejected by the sub-branch president since 2011, Andrew Alwast, one of the leaders behind the protracted Supreme Court battle to have the assets - estimated to be now worth close to $2 million - returned to Canberra.
''At both special meetings [of members in March and May 2009] there was a consensus resolution passed that No. 5 should continue its activities, and as long as No. 5 continued, it should keep the money to allow it to continue,'' Mr Alwast said.
The 73-year-old, who said his father had a military background, said the move to dissolve the sub-branch was a power game played by a cash-strapped national executive.
''It was a grab for power because if the national executive had control of a fund worth more than a million dollars, then using the interest … they could decide who got what [grants for community organisations], which would put them in a very powerful position in the Polish community of Australia,'' he said.
Ex-servicemen have long been in the minority of sub-branch members with full voting rights, with anyone of Polish nationality or descent eligible to join.
Mr Alwast said the majority of members - including about five or six former combatants - had supported moves to retain the sub-branch in 2009.
Three of these have since died, he said. A combatant whose phone number he provided did not want to comment.
One Pole opposed to the retention move is Frank Kustra, a long-time member of the Sydney sub-branch who moved to Canberra nearly two years ago.
Mr Kustra said he was asked by Mr Alwast to leave a No. 5 meeting at the Polish White Eagle Club last November. ''He said, 'You stop talking because that's not your business, your shouldn't be here, so please leave or I'll have to call the police,' '' Mr Kustra said.
The 88-year-old - sent by the Russians to Siberia before joining the British-commanded Polish forces in World War II - has criticised the money spent on the legal battle, but said it was also a question of legitimacy in using the club's name.
''It's not a matter of money, it's that they call themselves ex-servicemen that hurts me,'' he said.
Mr Alwast acknowledged he had threatened to call the police if Mr Kustra did not leave, but said he was not a member of No. 5. ''We let him stay there until a discussion with the lawyers finished … [then] I basically said to him, 'We are starting the regular AGM, you're not a member, you're not welcome', and because everyone agreed with me he left on his own accord,'' Mr Alwast said.
The ACT Office of Regulatory Services, looking to stay out of the internal dispute, has continued to list the body on its public register.
A Justice and Community Safety Directorate spokeswoman said the office asked the sub-branch in December to file audited financial statements for the last five years.
Mr Alwast said the sub-branch's legal fees - he admitted they could be as high as $350,000 - left the body with no choice but to fight on. He said the sub-branch - now with 50 members, down from 92 in March 2009 - had made an offer for each side to receive ''about half'' the assets in November, but believed the national body should pay the lawyers' fees.
The dispute is complicated by a second defendant, the sub-branch's former lawyers, who No. 5 claims provided wrong advice on the national body's powers to wind up the Canberra group.
''This whole thing is not over, it's continuing - I wish it was over - I've had sleepless nights over this,'' Mr Alwast said.
The president of the national body throughout the 4½ year dispute, Witold Kuczyń´ski, said he did not wish to comment before the next court deadline on January 24.
The matter is listed for trial in September.
