FIRST SECTION
Application no. 62870/13
Lenka BILBIJA and Sanja BLAŽEVIĆ
against Croatia
lodged on 21 June 2013
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The applicants, Ms Lenka Bilbija and Ms Sanja Blažević, are Croatian nationals, who were born in 1958 and 1961 respectively and live in Zagreb.
The circumstances of the case
The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows.
On 13 February 2001 the applicants’ mother died after being admitted to the Jordanovac Clinical Hospital Centre (Klinički bolnički centar Jordanovac; hereinafter: the “Hospital”) for respiratory problems.
Following the death of their mother the applicants tried to obtain her medical records, but they were denied access to them by the Hospital.
On 27 July 2001 the first applicant lodged a complaint with the Ministry of Health (Ministarstvo zdravstva) complaining about their inability to obtain their mother’s medical records and about the circumstances in which she had died.
On 2 May 2003 the Ministry of Health dismissed the applicants’ complaints as baseless.
On 6 February 2004 the first applicant lodged a criminal complaint with the Zagreb Municipal State Attorney’s Office (Općinsko državno odvjetništvo u Zagrebu) alleging medical negligence by Hospital staff.
She inquired several times with the Zagreb State Attorney’s Office about the progress of the investigation but was never given a satisfactory response.
On 25 January 2008 the State Attorney’s Office dismissed the criminal complaint as ill-founded. The first applicant was instructed that she could take over the prosecution as a subsidiary prosecutor.
On 20 February 2008, after she had received the medical records from the Zagreb State Attorney’s Office, the first applicant instituted criminal proceedings in the Zagreb Municipal Criminal Court (Općinski kazneni sud u Zagrebu) against doctor B.S. on charges of medical negligence.
On 22 December 2009 the case was forwarded to an investigating judge of the Zagreb County Court (Županijski sud u Zagrebu) for further investigation.
On 16 February 2012 a three-judge panel of the Zagreb County Court discontinued the investigation on the grounds of lack of evidence.
On 28 November 2012 the Supreme Court (Vrhovni sud Republike Hrvatske) upheld the decision of the Zagreb County Court.
The applicant lodged a constitutional complaint with the Constitutional Court (Ustavni sud Republike Hrvatske), complaining of the ineffectiveness of the proceedings before the lower courts and their failure to elucidate the circumstances of her mother’s death.
On 28 February 2013 the Constitutional Court declared the constitutional complaint inadmissible as manifestly ill-founded.
COMPLAINTS
The applicants complain, under Article 2 of the Convention, of the lack of an effective and prompt procedure before the domestic authorities concerning the death of their mother, allegedly caused by medical negligence.
They also complain, under Article 3 of the Convention, that the ineffectiveness of the domestic proceedings made them feel humiliated and debased.
The applicants further complain, under Article 8 of the Convention, that the ineffectiveness of the domestic proceedings adversely affected their private and family life.
Lastly, the applicants complain, under Article 13 of the Convention, that they did not have an effective domestic remedy concerning their complaints.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Have the State authorities complied with their procedural obligations under Articles 2 and 8 of the Convention?
2. Did the applicants have at their disposal an effective domestic remedy for their complaints under Article 2, as required by Article 13 of the Convention?
The Government are requested to submit two copies of the relevant documents concerning the applicants’ case.
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