THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 76324/14
Danka HOLANOVÁ
against Slovakia
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 8 December 2015 as a Committee composed of:
George Nicolaou, President,
Branko Lubarda,
Pere Pastor Vilanova, judges,
and Marialena Tsirli, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 2 December 2014,
Having regard to the declaration submitted by the respondent Government on 22 June 2015 requesting the Court to strike a part of the application out of the list of cases and the applicant’s reply to that declaration,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The applicant, Ms Danka Holanová, is a Slovak national, who was born in 1970 and lives in Bratislava. She was represented before the Court by Ms D. Matušková, a lawyer practising in Bratislava.
The Slovak Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms M. Pirošíková.
The applicant complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the length of civil proceedings concerning a labor dispute which were initiated before the Bratislava I District Court on 14 November 2006. The proceedings have been held before three levels of jurisdiction and are still pending. The applicant also alleged a violation of Article 13 of the Convention.
In relation to the length of the impugned proceedings, the Constitutional Court had rejected the applicant’s complaint on 27 March 2014.
The part of the application regarding the length of the proceedings has been communicated to the Government.
THE LAW
A. The length of proceedings complaint
The applicant complained about the length of the above civil proceedings. She relied on Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.
After the failure of attempts to reach a friendly settlement, by a letter of 22 June 2015 the Government informed the Court that they proposed to make a unilateral declaration with a view to resolving the issue raised by the application. They further requested the Court to strike out the application in accordance with Article 37 of the Convention.
The declaration provided as follows:
“The Government acknowledge the unreasonable duration of the domestic proceedings in which the applicant was involved.
I, Marica Pirošíková, the Agent of the Government of the Slovak Republic before the European Court of Human Rights, declare that the Government offer to pay to Ms Danka Holanová the sum of EUR 2,070 (two thousand seventy euros), plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicant.
The Government would suggest that the above information be accepted by the Court as “any other reason” justifying the striking out of the case of the Court’s list of cases, as referred to in Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention.
In the event of the Court’s decision pursuant to Article 37 § 1 of the Convention, the Government undertake to pay to the applicant the declared sum within the three months from the date of notification of the decision. In the event of failure to pay this sum within the said three-month period, the Government undertake to pay simple interest on it, from expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points. This payment will constitute the final settlement of the case.”
By a letter of 24 July 2015, the applicant indicated that she was not satisfied with the terms of the unilateral declaration on the ground that the domestic proceedings have not been finished yet and the sum offered was inappropriate.
The Court reiterates that Article 37 of the Convention provides that it may at any stage of the proceedings decide to strike an application out of its list of cases where the circumstances lead to one of the conclusions specified, under (a), (b) or (c) of paragraph 1 of that Article. Article 37 § 1 (c) enables the Court in particular to strike a case out of its list if:
“for any other reason established by the Court, it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the application”.
It also reiterates that in certain circumstances, it may strike out an application under Article 37 § 1(c) on the basis of a unilateral declaration by a respondent Government even if the applicant wishes the examination of the case to be continued.
To this end, the Court has examined the declaration carefully in the light of the principles emerging from its case-law, in particular the Tahsin Acar judgment (Tahsin Acar v. Turkey [GC], no. 26307/95, §§ 75-77, ECHR 2003-VI; WAZA Spółka z o.o. v. Poland (dec.), no. 11602/02, 26 June 2007; and Sulwińska v. Poland (dec.), no. 28953/03, 18 September 2007).
The Court has established in a number of cases, including those brought against Slovakia, its practice concerning complaints about the violation of one’s right to a hearing within a reasonable time (see, for example, Frydlender v. France [GC], no. 30979/96, § 43, ECHR 2000-VII; Scordino v. Italy (no. 1) [GC], no. 36813/97, §§ 178-227, ECHR 2006‑V; Rapoš v. Slovakia, no. 25763/02, §§ 32-34, 20 May 2008; Bič v. Slovakia, no. 23865/03, §§ 39-41, 4 November 2008 or Komár v. Slovakia, no. 25951/06, §§ 30-33, 26 October 2010).
Having regard to the nature of the admissions contained in the Government’s declaration, as well as the amount of compensation proposed – which is consistent with the amounts awarded in similar cases – the Court considers that it is no longer justified to continue the examination of this part of the application (Article 37 § 1(c)).
Moreover, in light of the above considerations, and in particular given the clear and extensive case-law on the topic, the Court is satisfied that respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and the Protocols thereto does not require it to continue the examination of this part of the application (Article 37 § 1 in fine).
Finally, the Court emphasises that, should the Government fail to comply with the terms of their unilateral declaration, the application could be restored to the list in accordance with Article 37 § 2 of the Convention (Josipović v. Serbia (dec.), no. 18369/07, 4 March 2008).
In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list.
B. Remaining complaint
The applicant further complained about a violation of her right under Article 13 in conjunction with Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.
Having regard to all the evidence in its possession, and in so far as it has jurisdiction to examine the allegations, the Court has not found any appearance of a breach of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Convention or its Protocols.
It follows that this part of the application is manifestly ill-founded and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 1, 3 and 4 of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Takes note of the terms of the respondent Government’s declaration under Article 37 § 1 of the Convention and of the modalities for ensuring compliance with the undertakings referred to therein;
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention, to the extent that it concerns the complaint under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the length of the proceedings;
Declares the remainder of the application inadmissible.
Done in English and notified in writing on 7 January 2016.
Marialena TsirliGeorge Nicolaou
Deputy RegistrarPresident
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy