Resolution CM/ResDH (2010)217[1]
Execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights
Examiliotis No. 2 against Greece
(Application No. 28340/ 02, judgment of 04 May 2006, final on 23 October 2006)
The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which provides that the Committee supervises the execution of final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as “the Convention” and “the Court”);
Having regard to the judgment transmitted by the Court to the Committee once it had become final;
Recalling that the violation of the Convention found by the Court in this case concerns disproportionate constraint on the applicant’s right of access to a court in an action for damages against the state because of administrative courts’ narrow jurisprudential interpretation of the rules on prescription (Violation of Article 6, paragraph 1) (see details in Appendix);
Having invited the government of the respondent state to inform the Committee of the measures taken in order to comply with its obligation under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention to abide by the judgment;
Having examined the information provided by the government in accordance with the Committee’s Rules for the application of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention;
Having satisfied itself that, within the time-limit set, the respondent state paid the applicant the just satisfaction provided in the judgment (see details in Appendix),
Recalling that a finding of violations by the Court requires, over and above the payment of just satisfaction awarded by the Court in its judgments, the adoption by the respondent state, where appropriate:
- of individual measures to put an end to the violations and erase their consequences so as to achieve as far as possible restitutio in integrum; and
- of general measures, preventing similar violations;
DECLARES, having examined the measures taken by the respondent state (see Appendix), that it has exercised its functions under Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention in this case and
DECIDES to close the examination of this case.
Appendix to Resolution CM/ResDH(2010)217
Information about the measures to comply with the judgment in the case of
Examiliotis No. 2 against Greece
Introductory case summary
The case concerns disproportionate constraint on the applicant’s right of access to a court in an action for damages. The applicant was convicted in October 1986 in absentia because of the criminal judicial authorities’ negligence in sending a summons to the wrong address. The applicant therefore sued the state for 2000 EUR damages; his case was dismissed, as being out of time, by the Athens administrative courts of first and second instance in 1992 and 1995 respectively. The dismissal was based on the fact that the deadline for prescription began to run from the date the judgment was pronounced and not from the date on which the applicant had become aware of it, two years later.
The European Court considered that such a jurisprudential interpretation of the rules on prescription had imposed an obligation on the applicant that he had not been in a position to fulfil. As a result this constraint upon the applicant’s right to access to a court was not proportionate, regarding the need to guarantee legal security and the good administration of justice (violation of Article 6§1).
I.Payment of just satisfaction and individual measures
a) Details of just satisfaction
Pecuniary damage
Non-pecuniary damage
Costs and expenses
Total
5 000 EUR
4 600 EUR
9 600 EUR
Paid on 23/02/2007
b) Individual measures
The European Court awarded the applicant just satisfaction in respect of non-pecuniary damage sustained. The applicant had made no request in respect of pecuniary damage.
General measures
According to the Greek authorities, this case appears to present an isolated character. According to well-established national jurisprudence, the prescription runs from the date when the person concerned had become aware of the act at issue (see Supreme Administrative Court 1475/2003 and Athens Court of Appeal 1010/2007). The Court’s judgment was sent to the Minister of Justice with a view to its dissemination to all administrative and judicial courts. A translation in Greek has been published on the website of the State Legal Council ().
III.Conclusions of the respondent state
The government considers that the measures adopted will prevent similar violations and that Greece has thus complied with its obligations under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention.
[1] Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 2 December 2010 at the 1100th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies
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