FIFTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 28402/06
by Zoran JANKOVIC and Vesna MANDIC
against the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting on 24 November 2009 as a Chamber composed of:

Peer Lorenzen, President,
Renate Jaeger,
Karel Jungwiert,
Rait Maruste,
Mark Villiger,
Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre,
Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska, judges,
and Claudia Westerdiek, Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 23 May 2006,

Having regard to the decision to grant priority to the above application under Rule 41 of the Rules of Court,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicants,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicants, Mr Zoran Jankovic and Ms Vesna Mandic, are Serbian nationals who were born in 1946 and 1957 respectively, and live in Leskovac, Serbia. The Macedonian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mrs R. Lazareska Gerovska. The Serbian Government were invited to intervene in the proceedings (Article 36 § 1 of the Convention). However, by letter of 3 October 2008 they notified the Court that they did not wish to exercise their right to do so.

The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.

On 2 December 1995 the applicants, while travelling in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in their car, ran off the road into an abyss.

On 27 February 1996 they brought, through their legal representative, a compensation claim against the public undertaking responsible for road maintenance alleging that the accident had been caused by a landslide. On 30 April 2002 the Veles Court of First Instance ruled partly in favour of the applicants. After one remittal, the applicants’ case was finally decided by the Skopje Court of Appeal’s decision of 13 October 2005. According to the copy of a receipt slip submitted by the Government, this latter deci