THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 52752/16
Sari KOLEHMAINEN and Others
against Sweden
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 29 May 2018 as a Committee composed of:
Branko Lubarda, President,
Pere Pastor Vilanova,
Georgios A. Serghides, judges,
and Fatoş Aracı, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
PROCEDURE
A list of the applicants is set out in the appendix. They are represented before the Court by Mr Jens-Victor Palm, a lawyer practising in Stockholm.
The applicants alleged that their right to family life under Article 8 of the Convention had been violated when two of the applicants, who were children, were taken into public care, and during the subsequent proceedings regarding, inter alia, the continuation of the care and contact restrictions.
On 31 August 2017 the Registry sent a letter to the applicants requesting that they submit certain documents, including the social services’ application to the Administrative Court (förvaltningsrätten) in Falun, in which it requested that the children be taken into care under the Care of Young Persons Act (lagen med särskilda bestämmelser om vård av unga; 1990:52) and the judgments from all court instances in respect of the social services’ decision of 21 March 2012 concerning contact restrictions.
The applicants responded and submitted some of the requested documents, but not the above-mentioned application and judgments.
On 12 October 2017 the Registry sent a second letter to the applicants requesting that they submit, inter alia, the above-mentioned documents. The Registry also informed the applicants that, according to previously submitted documents, the Administrative Court had reviewed the social services’ decision of 21 March 2012 in a judgment delivered on 18 May 2012.
The applicants replied that the requested documents did not exist and therefore could not be submitted.
On 15 November 2017 the Registry sent a third letter to the applicants requesting that they submit the social services’ application to the Administrative Court, including the reports from the child welfare investigations, and the judgment from the Administrative Court concerning contact restrictions. The applicants were informed that the Court might strike the application out of its list of cases if they did not submit the requested documents.
The applicants responded and once more stated that the requested documents did not exist and therefore could not be submitted.
THE LAW
The Court has repeatedly requested that the applicants submit certain documents essential to the processing of the application. The applicants have failed to submit the requested documents and have argued that the documents do not exist. However, in the domestic proceedings concerning the applicants’ action for damages, based on alleged breaches of the Convention, both the District Court (tingsrätt) of Falun and the Svea Court of Appeal (Svea hovrätt) have evaluated and based their decisions on the documents in question.
In these circumstances the Court concludes that it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the application within the meaning of Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention. Furthermore, the Court finds no reasons of a general character, as defined in Article 37 § 1 in fine, which would require the examination of the application by virtue of that Article.
Accordingly, the case should be struck out of the list.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.
Done in English and notified in writing on 21 June 2018.
Fatoş AracıBranko Lubarda
Deputy RegistrarPresident
Appendix Sari KOLEHMAINEN is a Swedish national who was born in 1973, lives in Borlänge and is represented by J.V. Palm Alex BUDGIVARS JOKITALO is a Swedish national who was born in 2003, lives in Borlänge and is represented by J.V. Palm Felix BUDGIVARS JOKITALO is a Swedish national who was born in 2003, lives in Borlänge and is represented by J.V. Palm Love BUDGIVARS JOKITALO is a Swedish national who was born in 1998, lives in Borlänge and is represented by J.V. Palm Aurora FORSBERG is a Swedish national who was born in 2005, lives in Borlänge and is represented by J.V. Palm Jesse FORSBERG is a Swedish national who was born in 2007, lives in Borlänge and is represented by J.V. Palm Jari JOKITALO is a Swedish national who was born in 1971, lives in Borlänge and is represented by J.V. Palm
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy