Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 156
October 2012
Glykantzi v. Greece - 40150/09
Judgment 30.10.2012 [Section I]
Article 46
Pilot judgment
General measures
Respondent State required to provide within one year domestic remedy for length of proceedings before the civil courts
Facts – In March 1996 the applicant brought pay-related proceedings before the Court of First Instance against the public hospital where she worked. She was unsuccessful and following her second appeal on points of law, the case was referred back, in February 2009, to the court of appeal. The case is still pending before the court of appeal, in which a hearing was scheduled for 6 November 2012.
Law – The Court found that there had been violations of Article 6 § 1 and Article 13 of the Convention.
Article 46: The problem of length of proceedings in Greece had already given rise to two pilot judgments: Vassilios Athanasiou and Others concerning administrative proceedings, and Michelioudakis concerning criminal proceedings. However, as the Committee of Ministers had noted in its interim Resolution of 2007*, this issue also affected civil proceedings. In this connection, whilst various legislative measures had recently been taken as regards the domestic law, the Greek legal system still provided no remedy by which a litigant could assert the right to have his or her civil action dealt with within a reasonable time. In view of the foregoing, it was appropriate to apply the pilot-judgment procedure in the present case and the situation in question had to be regarded as reflecting a practice that was incompatible with the Convention. The Greek authorities were thus required, within a period of one year, to introduce a remedy or a combination of effective remedies that genuinely guaranteed sufficient redress for the excessive duration of civil proceedings. As regards remedies for the purposes of expediting the proceedings or obtaining compensation, a significant number of member States had put in place procedures that were, to varying degrees, simpler than the ordinary court procedures. For example, the examination of a complaint by a single judge, written procedures, lower advances on court costs and dispensing with a public hearing, were all measures that could, if appropriate, be implemented in order to facilitate the handling of the above-mentioned complaints and avoid overloading the courts’ dockets, which could lead to additional delays in judicial proceedings. Pending the adoption by the Greek authorities of the necessary measures at domestic level, the communicated applications before the Court, in all cases where the sole subject-matter was the duration of civil proceedings before the Greek courts, would be adjourned for a period of one year from the date on which the present judgment became final.
Article 41: EUR 10,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage; claim in respect of pecuniary damage dismissed.
(See Vassilios Athanasiou and Others v. Greece, no. 50973/08, 21 December 2010, Information Note no. 136, and Michelioudakis v. Greece, no. 54447/10, 3 April 2012, Information Note no. 151)
* Interim Resolution CM/ResDH(2007)74 in which the Committee of Ministers called on the Greek authorities to remedy the problem of the excessive length of proceedings before the administrative courts.
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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