FOURTH SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 1278/16
Janos FERENCZ
against Romania
The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 16 January 2020 as a Committee composed of:
Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström, President,
Georges Ravarani,
Jolien Schukking, judges,
and Liv Tigerstedt, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 17 February 2016,
Having regard to the decision to restore the application to its list of cases,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The applicant, Mr Janos Ferencz, was born in 1956.
On 16 May 2019, the Court (Fourth Section) sitting as a Committee, delivered a decision in a group of cases, which included the current application (see Dobocan v. Romania and 6 other applications, nos. 23348/15 and 6 others, 16 May 2019), and decided to strike the application out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention on the basis of a unilateral declaration submitted by the Romanian Government (“the Government”) acknowledging a violation of Article 3 of the Convention due to the applicant’s inadequate conditions of detention and awarding the applicant the amount of 4,500 euros (EUR) in respect of pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and costs and expenses.
On 14 August 2019, the Government made a request to restore the application to the Court’s list of cases, as in the course of the proceedings to enforce the Court’s decision, they were informed that the applicant had died on 11 September 2018. The Government submitted that no legal heir had manifested an intention to join the proceedings in the applicant’s place.
On 26 September 2019 the Court decided, under Rule 43 § 5 of the Rules of the Court, to disjoin the current application from those to which it had been joined and to restore it to its list of cases on the basis of the applicant’s demise.
By letter dated 1 October 2019, sent by registered post, the applicant’s heirs were notified that the application had been restored to the Court’s list of cases and they were invited, in particular, to inform the Court whether they wished to pursue the application before the Court. The heirs’ attention was drawn to Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention, which provides that the Court may strike an application out of its list of cases where the circumstances lead to the conclusion that they do not intend to pursue the application. The letter was returned to the Court on 28 October 2019 with the mention “unknown recipient; no heirs live in the village”.
THE LAW
In the light of the foregoing, the Court concludes that the applicant’s heirs may be regarded as not wishing to pursue the application 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 the Protocols thereto which require the continued examination of the application.
Accordingly, the case should be struck out of the list.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.
Done in English and notified in writing on 6 February 2020.
Liv TigerstedtStéphanie Mourou-Vikström
Acting Deputy RegistrarPresident
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