FIRST SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 54047/16
Daniel KARASEK against Poland
and 9 other applications
(see appended table)
The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting on 18 February 2021 as a Committee composed of:
Alena Poláčková, President,
Péter Paczolay,
Gilberto Felici, judges,
and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above applications lodged on the various dates indicated in the appended table,
Having regard to the declarations submitted by the respondent Government requesting the Court to strike the applications out of the list of cases,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The list of applicants is set out in the appended table.
The applicants’ complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the excessive length of proceedings in their cases and under Article 13 of the Convention about the lack of, or insufficient, redress for the excessive length of proceedings granted to them by the national courts were communicated to the Polish Government (“the Government”).
THE LAW
Having regard to the similar subject matter of the applications, the Court finds it appropriate to examine them jointly in a single decision.
The Government informed the Court that they proposed to make unilateral declarations with a view to resolving the issues raised by these complaints. They further requested the Court to strike out the applications in accordance with Article 37 of the Convention.
In each application the Government acknowledged a violation of Article 6 § 1 on account of the excessive length of proceedings, as well as a violation of Article 13 on account of the lack of an effective remedy. They offered to pay the applicants the amounts detailed in the appended table and invited the Court to strike the applications out of the list of cases in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention. The amounts would be payable within three months from the date of notification of the Court’s decision. In the event of failure to pay these amounts within the above‑mentioned three-month period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on them, from the 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. The Government further undertook to adopt a range of general measures in respect of other persons who were victims of similar violations or might be affected by similar violations in the future.
The payment will constitute the final resolution of the cases.
The applicants were sent the terms of the Government’s unilateral declarations several weeks before the date of this decision. The Court has not received a response from the applicants accepting the terms of the declarations.
The Court observes that Article 37 § 1 (c) enables it 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”.
Thus, it may strike out applications under Article 37 § 1 (c) on the basis of a unilateral declaration by a respondent Government even if the applicants wish the examination of the cases to be continued (see, in particular, the Tahsin Acar v. Turkey judgment (preliminary objections) [GC], no. 26307/95, §§ 75‑77, ECHR 2003-VI).
The Court has established clear and extensive case-law concerning complaints relating to the excessive length of civil and criminal proceedings and the lack of an effective remedy in this regard (see, for example, Rutkowski and Others v. Poland, nos. 72287/10 and 2 others, §§ 160 and 186, 7 July 2015, with further references).
Noting the admissions contained in the Government’s declarations as well as the amount of compensation proposed – which is consistent with the amounts awarded in similar cases against Poland – the Court considers that it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the applications (Article 37 § 1 (c)); see also the conclusions reached in the first group of cases submitted in the pilot-judgment procedure, Załuska and Rogalska v. Poland and 398 other applications (dec.), nos. 53491/10 and 72286/10, §§ 48-55, 20 June 2017).
In the light of the above considerations, 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 the applications (Article 37 § 1 in fine).
Finally, the Court emphasises that, should the Government fail to comply with the terms of their unilateral declarations, the applications may be restored to the list in accordance with Article 37 § 2 of the Convention (see Josipović v. Serbia (dec.), no. 18369/07, 4 March 2008).
In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the cases out of the list as regards the complaints concerning the excessive length of civil and criminal proceedings and the lack of any effective remedy in domestic law.
In the applications nos. 54047/16 and 37508/17 the applicants also raised other complaints under Article 6 § 1 and Article 8 § 1 of the Convention.
The Court has examined the applications listed in the appended table and considers that, in the light of all the material in its possession and in so far as the matters complained of are within its competence, these complaints either do not meet the admissibility criteria set out in Articles 34 and 35 of the Convention or do not disclose any appearance of a violation of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Convention or the Protocols thereto.
It follows that this part of the applications must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 § 4 of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to join the applications;
Takes note of the terms of the respondent Government’s declarations in so far as they concern the excessive length of proceedings and the lack of any effective remedy in domestic law in this regard, and of the arrangements for ensuring compliance with the undertakings referred to therein;
Decides to strike this part of the applications, as covered by the Government’s unilateral declarations, out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention;
Declares the remainder of the applications nos. 54047/16 and 37508/17 inadmissible.
Done in English and notified in writing on 11 March 2021.
Viktoriya MaradudinaAlena Poláčková
Acting Deputy RegistrarPresident
APPENDIX
List of applications raising complaints under Article 6 § 1 and Article 13 of the Convention (excessive length of civil and criminal proceedings and lack of an effective remedy in domestic law)
No.
Application no.
Date of introduction
Applicant’s name
Year of birth
Date of receipt of Government’s declaration
Date of receipt of applicant’s comments, if any
Amount awarded for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and costs and expenses per applicant
(in Polish Zloty PLN) [1]
54047/16
07/09/2016
Daniel KARASEK
1979
25/06/2020
28/09/2020
9,360
27273/17
29/03/2017
Piotr CUDNY
1980
26/06/2020
24/09/2020
9,190
37508/17
17/05/2017
Marek Piotr MAJEWSKI
1965
26/06/2020
25/09/2020
6,360
46594/17
31/07/2017
Jaime Eduardo CARDONA GIRALDO
1957
26/06/2020
28/08/2020
13,030
12943/18
06/03/2018
Joanna GNIEWEK
1953
25/06/2020
08/10/2020
28,080
13771/18
09/03/2018
Adam DANILUK
1979
26/06/2020
06/10/2020
4,800
13835/18
06/03/2018
Dobromir GNIEWEK
1951
25/06/2020
07/10/2020
28,080
24249/18
14/05/2018
Łukasz Tomasz SZUSTAK
1982
26/06/2020
27/10/2020
4,240
26284/18
24/05/2018
Tadeusz MRÓZ
1934
25/06/2020
08/10/2020
36,430
8414/19
01/02/2019
Kazimierz RUTKOWSKI
1966
25/06/2020
06/10/2020
7,720
[1] Plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicant
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