THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 34926/18
Genita HOXHA
against Albania
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 13 December 2022 as a Committee composed of:
Georgios A. Serghides, President,
Jolien Schukking,
Darian Pavli, judges,
and Olga Chernishova, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application (no. 34926/18) against the Republic of Albania lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on 11 July 2018 by an Albanian national, Ms Genita Hoxha, who was born in 1984 and lives in Tirana (“the applicant”) who was represented by Mr G. Mucaj, a lawyer practising in Tirana;
the decision to give notice of the application to the Albanian Government (“the Government”), initially represented by their former Agent, Mr A. Metani, and subsequently by Mr O. Moçka, General State Advocate;
the parties’ observations;
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
1. Following the termination of her employment contract with the Embassy of Kosovo in Tirana, the applicant brought a civil action in the Tirana District Court against her former employer, challenging her dismissal. On 28 December 2016 the Tirana District Court dismissed the respondent’s objection that the dispute fell outside the jurisdiction of the Albanian courts.
2. On 6 November 2016 amendments to the Constitutional Court Act were enacted, shortening the time-limit for lodging a constitutional complaint from two years to four months “of obtaining knowledge of the interference [with a constitutional right or freedom]” and that the provision concerning the new time-limit would enter into force on 1 March 2017.
3. Both the respondent and the applicant lodged appeals against the decision of 28 December 2016 with the Supreme Court and the proceedings before that court started on 23 March 2017. The Supreme Court held a hearing on 27 April 2017 at which it pronounced the operative part of its decision overturning the District Court’s decision and ruling that the dispute was outside the jurisdiction of the Albanian Courts. The Supreme Court’s decision was served on the applicant on 18 September 2017.
4. According to the applicant, she lodged her constitutional complaint on 23 January 2018 and according to the Government on 24 January 2018. The applicant alleged that her right of access to court and her right to an impartial tribunal had been violated and that the Supreme Court’s decision had not been adequately reasoned and that the principle of legal certainty had not been respected. On 8 February 2018 the Constitutional Court declared the applicant’s complaint inadmissible as being lodged outside the four-month time-limit, counting from 27 April 2017, the date when the Supreme Court adopted its decision.
THE COURT’S ASSESSMENT
5. The applicant complains that she had no access to the Constitutional Court because it counted the four-month time-limit for lodging a constitutional complaint from the date the contested decision of the Supreme Court had been adopted and not from the date it had been served on her.
6. The Court notes that the applicant lodged a constitutional complaint against the contested Supreme Court’s decision adopted on 27 April 2017, that is to say after 1 March 2017 when the provision providing for a four-month time-limit for lodging a constitutional complaint entered into force. Therefore, the new four-month time-limit clearly applied to the applicant’s case.
7. The Court notes that the parties agree that the Supreme Court’s decision was served on the applicant’s lawyer on 18 September 2018, and that, according to the applicant, she lodged her constitutional complaint on 23 January 2018. The Court notes further that, even if it accepts the applicant’s position that the four-month time-limit for lodging a constitutional complaint had started to run from the date when the contested decision of the Supreme Court had been served on her, that time-limit expired on 18 January 2018 which was a Thursday and a regular working day in Albania. However, the applicant claimed that she had lodged her constitutional complaint only on the following Tuesday, 23 January 2018. Thus, it was in any event lodged out of the four-month time-limit.
8. In these circumstances the Court considers that the applicant’s complaint about her lack of access to the Constitutional Court is manifestly ill-founded, since it lacks any indication of a violation of the right of access to court enshrined in Article 6 of the Convention (see, for general principles, Zubac v. Croatia [GC], no. 40160/12, §§ 76-99, 5 April 2018).
9. It follows that this part of the application must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 § 3 (a) and 4 of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Declares the application inadmissible.
Done in English and notified in writing on 26 January 2023.
Olga Chernishova Georgios A. Serghides
Deputy Registrar President