FIRST SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 19781/13
Rosa Maria ANTUNES CASTRO and Fernando Manuel DE CASTRO COELHO
against Portugal
The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting on 9 December 2014 as a Committee composed of:
Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska, President,
Paulo Pinto de Albuquerque,
Ksenija Turković, judges,
and André Wampach, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 18 March 2013,
Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the case,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The applicants, Ms Rosa Maria Antunes Castro and Mr Fernando Manuel de Castro Coelho, are Portuguese nationals, who were born in 1966 and 1963 respectively and live in Vila Nova de Famalicão. They were represented before the Court by Mr J. Castro, a lawyer practising in Vila Nova de Famalicão.
The Portuguese Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mrs M. F. da Graça Carvalho, Deputy Attorney-General.
The applicants complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the length of civil proceedings to which they were a party.
On 8 July and 7 October 2014 the Court received friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties under which the applicants agreed to waive any further claims against Portugal in respect of the facts giving rise to this application against an undertaking by the Government to jointly pay them EUR 5,550 (five thousand five hundred and fifty euros) to cover any non-pecuniary damage as well as costs and expenses, which will be free of any taxes that may be applicable. It will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court. In the event of failure to pay this sum within the said three-month period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on it, from the expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points. The payment will constitute the final resolution of the case.
THE LAW
The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the application. In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention.
André WampachMirjana Lazarova Trajkovska
Deputy RegistrarPresident
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy