THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 52474/16
HOUSING COOPERATIVE TEHNIČAR NOVI SAD against Serbia
and 29 other applications
(see list appended)
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 14 May 2019 as a Committee composed of:
Georgios A. Serghides, President,
Branko Lubarda,
Erik Wennerström, judges,
and Fatoş Aracı, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above applications lodged on the various dates indicated in the appended table,
Having regard to the observations submitted by the parties,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
THE FACTS
1. The applicant is Stambena zadruga radnika Univerziteta u Novom Sadu Tehničar - u stečaju (“the applicant”), a housing cooperative that had its seat in Novi Sad. It was represented before the Court by Mr Č. Nikolić, a lawyer practicing in Niš.
2. On 9 November 2010 winding up proceedings against the applicant were initiated. On 10 October 2016 the applicant ceased to exist. Shortly thereafter, its estate was registered in a special register of the estates of liquidated legal entities with pending claims (Registar stečajne mase). It is not clear whether the applicant’s estate has legal personality under domestic law.
3. The Serbian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms N. Plavšić.
4. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.
5. In 1990s the applicant initiated around 400 civil suits seeking damages from its members. The present case concerns thirty of those civil proceedings.
6. At the date of the entry into force of the Convention in respect of Serbia, the proceedings were still before the first-instance court. They lasted around ten years after that date for two instances (see the appended table).
7. In the course of 2016 the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Cassation rendered a number of decisions finding a violation of the applicant’s right to a hearing within a reasonable time and awarded it a total of 17,220 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage.
COMPLAINT
8. The applicant complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the length of the civil proceedings described above.
THE LAW
A. Joinder of applications
9. Having regard to the similar subject matter of the applications, the Court finds it appropriate to examine them jointly in a single decision.
B. Admissibility
10. The Government maintained that the applicant can no longer claim to be a victim, since the domestic courts had acknowledged a breach of its right to a hearing within a reasonable time and had awarded adequate redress.
11. The applicant disagreed.
12. In accordance with the Court’s well-established case-law in length-of-proceedings cases, a decision or a measure favourable to the applicant is not in principle sufficient to deprive him of his status as a victim unless the national authorities have acknowledged a violation either expressly or in substance, and awarded appropriate and sufficient redress for it (see the principles set out in Cocchiarella v. Italy [GC], no. 64886/01, §§ 69-98, ECHR 2006‑V).
13. In the present case, the domestic courts acknowledged a breach of the applicant’s right to a hearing within a reasonable time. They also awarded the applicant EUR 17,220 in total in respect of non-pecuniary damage. Although the applicant pursued numerous sets of civil proceedings, the Court cannot ignore the fact that all those proceedings were almost identical and were pursued in parallel. Taking into consideration also the finding of the domestic courts that the applicant had contributed to the length of the proceedings, the Court considers that the applicant was awarded appropriate and sufficient redress.
14. Therefore, even assuming that the applicant’s estate can pursue proceedings before this Court in the applicant’s stead (see paragraph 2 above), the applicant can no longer claim to be a “victim” within the meaning of Article 34 of the Convention. It follows that the case is manifestly ill-founded and must be rejected pursuant to Article 35 §§ 3 (a) and 4 of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to join the applications;
Declares the applications inadmissible.
Done in English and notified in writing on 6 June 2019.
Fatoş AracıGeorgios A. Serghides
Deputy RegistrarPresident
APPENDIX
No.
Application no.
Date of introduction
Applicant’s name
Date of registration
Seat
Start of proceedings or date of entry into force the Convention in respect of Serbia (3 March 2004)
End of proceedings
Total length
Levels of jurisdiction
52474/16
29/08/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
12/02/2014
9 years and 11 months and 10 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
52517/16
29/08/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
06/02/2014
9 years and 11 months and 4 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
52522/16
29/08/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
12/12/2013
9 years and 9 months and 10 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
52525/16
29/08/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
07/05/2014
10 years and 2 months and 5 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
52527/16
29/08/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
15/10/2013
9 years and 7 months and 13 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
52528/16
29/08/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
12/02/2014
9 years and 11 months and 10 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
52539/16
29/08/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
17/11/2013
9 years and 8 months and 15 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
52540/16
29/08/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
11/12/2013
9 years and 9 months and 9 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
52541/16
29/08/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
27/11/2013
9 years and 8 months and 25 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
52544/16
29/08/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
19/09/2013
9 years and 6 months and 17 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
52545/16
29/08/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
17/06/2013
9 years and 3 months and 15 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
52653/16
29/08/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
05/02/2014
9 years and 11 months and 3 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
55198/16
16/09/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
11/02/2016
11 years and 11 months and 9 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
57973/16
30/09/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
28/03/2014
10 years and 26 day
2 levels of jurisdiction
59150/16
01/10/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
20/08/2014
10 years and 5 months and 18 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
59384/16
01/10/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
16/04/2014
10 years and 1 month and 14 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
3987/17
23/12/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
30/01/2014
9 years and 10 months and 28 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
3996/17
23/12/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
20/03/2014
10 years and 18 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
34729/17
05/05/2017
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
10/09/2014
10 years and 6 months and 8 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
34732/17
04/05/2017
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
30/10/2014
10 years and 7 months and 28 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
34734/17
04/05/2017
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
31/10/2014
10 years and 7 months and 29 days
2 level(s) of jurisdiction
40637/17
21/05/2017
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
18/08/2015
11 years and 5 months and 16 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
40653/17
21/05/2017
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
21/04/2015
11 years and 1 month and 19 days 2 levels of jurisdiction
42279/17
06/06/2017
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
03/04/2015
11 years and 1 month and 1 day
2 levels of jurisdiction
42284/17
05/06/2017
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
07/09/2015
11 years and 6 months and 5 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
42288/17
05/06/2017
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
10/09/2015
11 years and 6 months and 8 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
84292/17
01/10/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
23/04/2014
10 years and 1 month and 21 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
84295/17
01/10/2016
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
13/02/2014
9 years and 11 months and 11 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
2362/18
03/01/2018
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
28/08/2014
10 years and 5 months and 26 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
3200/18
26/12/2017
Housing Cooperative Tehničar Novi Sad
15/03/1983
Novi Sad, Serbia
03/03/2004
31/10/2014
10 years and 7 months and 29 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
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