FOURTH SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 25675/04
Ionel CORNE
against Romania
The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 8 March 2018 as a Committee composed of:
Vincent A. De Gaetano, President,
Georges Ravarani,
Marko Bošnjak, judges,
and Liv Tigerstedt, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 12 September 2001,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
1. The applicant, Mr Ionel Corne, was born in 1944.
2. The applicant’s complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and Article 1 of the Protocol No. 1 concerning the non-enforcement of a final judgment and the length of proceedings were communicated to the Romanian Government (“the Government”).
3. On 3 March 2009 the applicant’s daughter, Ms Maria Magdalena Corne, informed the Registry that the applicant had died, expressing her wish to continue the proceedings before the Court in his name.
4. On 26 March 2009 and on 28 Mary 2009 the Court invited Ms Maria Magdalena Corne to submit a copy of her letter duly signed and dated and to enclose a copy of the certificate attesting the fact that she was the heir of the deceased applicant.
5. On 16 June 2009 she reaffirmed her intention to maintain the case in her late father’s stead. She only submitted the signed and dated letter and a copy of her birth certificate.
THE LAW
6. Having claimed to be the applicant’s only heir, Ms Maria Magdalena Corne did not provide any document, such as a succession certificate, to confirm acceptance of the late applicant’s succession (see Rista and Others v. Albania [Committee], nos. 5207/10 and 6 others, § 34, 17 March 2016, and Shurygina and Others v. Russia [Committee], nos. 2982/05 and 3 others, § 16, 15 March 2016) or even any statement confirming that she had accepted the succession after her deceased father (contrast Kotova and Others v. Russia, nos. 3585/08 and 16 others, 21 June 2016), or any other documents or detailed information which could be of relevance in her particular case (contrast Andreyeva v. Russia (dec.), no. 76737/01, 16 October 2003). The Court finds nothing in the file to suggest that Ms Corne had encountered any difficulty in obtaining any of the above documents or providing details in respect of her claim.
7. It follows that the Court cannot conclude that Ms Maria Magdalena Corne has met the requirement to substantiate her standing in the proceedings before the Court (see Koltakova v. Russia (dec.), no. 23558/06, 17 January 2017).
8. Nor does the Court consider that “respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and the Protocols” requires the examination of the application, despite the applicant’s death.
9. In these circumstances the Court considers that it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the application and concludes pursuant to Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention that the application should be struck out of its list of cases.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention.
Done in English and notified in writing on 29 March 2018.
Liv TigerstedtVincent A. De Gaetano
Acting Deputy RegistrarPresident
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