FOURTH SECTION
DECISION
Applications nos. 20957/08 and 20958/08
Maria BUTA against Romania
and Mihaela BUTA against Romania
The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 13 September 2016 as a Committee composed of:
Paulo Pinto de Albuquerque, President,
Iulia Motoc,
Marko Bošnjak, judges,
and Andrea Tamietti, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above applications lodged on 10 August 2006 and 29 August 2006 respectively,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
1. The applicants, Ms Maria Buta and Ms Mihaela Buta, both Romanian and Swedish nationals, were born in 1921 and 1946, respectively and lived in Tumba, Sweden. They were represented before the Court by Ms M. Dobrescu, a lawyer practising in Bucharest.
2. The Romanian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms C. Brumar, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
3. On 16 May 2008 the Court was informed that Ms Maria Buta had died on 26 May 2006 and that the second applicant, her daughter, was her single heir and wanted to pursue the proceedings in her stead.
4. The applicants’ complaints under Article 6 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention were communicated to the Government on 15 January 2009.
5. On 2 June 2009 the applications were joined.
6. On 25 June 2009 the Government submitted their observations on the admissibility and merits. The observations were forwarded to the applicants, who were invited to submit their own observations. No reply was received to the Registry’s letter.
7. By letter dated 6 October 2009, sent by registered post, the applicants’ representative was notified that the period allowed for submission of their observations had expired on 14 September 2009 and that no extension of time had been requested. The applicants’ representative’s attention was drawn to Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention, which provides that the Court may strike a case out of its list of cases where the circumstances lead to the conclusion that the applicant does not intend to pursue the application. The applicants’ representative received this letter on 12 October 2009. However, no response followed.
THE LAW
8. Firstly, the Court reiterates that an application, in principle, cannot be brought in the name of a deceased person, since a deceased person is unable, even through a representative, to lodge an application with the Court. As it is undisputed that the first applicant had died before her putative representative, Ms. M. Dobrescu, introduced the applications in her name, and in so far as the second applicant cannot pursue the application in her place because Ms Maria Buta had actually never taken part in proceedings before the Court, the present applications, in so far as they concern Ms Maria Buta, are incompatible ratione personae with the provisions of the Convention within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 and must be rejected pursuant to Article 35 § 4 (see for instance Dupin v. Croatia, (dec.), no. 36868/03, 7 July 2009 and Vidić and Others v. Serbia (dec.), no. 60/10, 14 January 2014).
9. The Court further considers that, in the circumstances described in paragraphs 6 and 7 above, the second applicant may be regarded as no longer wishing to pursue her applications, within the meaning of Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention. Furthermore, in accordance with Article 37 § 1 in fine, the Court finds no special circumstances regarding respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols which require the continued examination of the cases.
10. In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the applications out of the list in so far as they have been introduced by the second applicant.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Declares the applications inadmissible in so far as they concern the applicant Maria Buta,
Decides to strike the remainder of the applications out of its list of cases.
Done in English and notified in writing on 6 October 2016.
Andrea TamiettiPaulo Pinto de Albuquerque
Deputy RegistrarPresident
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy