FOURTH SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 27466/05
Petar Alexandrov KIROV
and Gospodinka Aleksandrova KIROVA against Bulgaria
and 5 other applications
(see list appended)
The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 11 September 2012 as a Committee composed of:
George Nicolaou, President,
Ledi Bianku,
Vincent A. De Gaetano, judges,
and Fatoş Aracı, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the appended applications, communicated as part of the grouped communications in Dimitrova-Mihova and 13 other applications v. Bulgaria (no. 8250/05 and others) and Perpelieva and 15 other applications v. Bulgaria (no. 2404/06 and others),
Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the cases,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
PROCEDURE
The applicants are Bulgarian nationals whose names and dates of birth are specified in the appended table. Some of the applicants were legally represented. The legal representatives involved were Mr M. Ekimdzhiev, Ms K. Boncheva, Mr K. Gyoshev, Mr V. Stoyanov and Ms P. Petrova. The Bulgarian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agents, Ms M. Kotzeva and Ms M. Dimova, of the Ministry of Justice.
The essential information as to the length of the proceedings in which the applicants were involved is indicated in the appended table.
On 18 October 2011 and 8 February 2012 the President of the Fourth Section decided to communicate the applicants’ complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention concerning the length of civil proceedings and in some cases the complaints under Article 13 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 concerning the lack of effective remedies in relation to the length and the impact of the length of the proceedings on property rights.
THE LAW
The Court considers that in accordance with Rule 42 § 1 of the Rules of Court, the applications should be joined, given their common legal background.
On various dates (see table below) the Court received friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties under which the applicants agreed to waive any further claims against Bulgaria in respect of the facts giving rise to these applications against an undertaking by the Government to pay them ex gratia sums, which will cover any and all damage, as well as costs and expenses, where applicable, plus any tax that may be chargeable, to be converted into the national currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable on the date of payment. The sums would be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court pursuant to Article 37 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In the event of failure to pay these sums within the said three-month period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on them 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. These payments would constitute the final resolution of the cases.
The Court takes note of the friendly settlements reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlements are based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no reason to justify a continued examination of the applications (Article 37 § 1 in fine of the Convention). In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the cases out of the list.
For these reasons, the Court unanimously
Decides to join the applications;
Decides to strike the applications out of its list of cases.
Fatoş AracıGeorge Nicolaou
Deputy RegistrarPresident
Appendix
No.
Application no.
Lodged on
Applicant’s name, year of birth, place of residence
Beginning and end of the domestic proceedings
Subject matter of domestic proceedings
Length of proceedings and instances concerned
Communicated complaints
Date of applicant friendly settlement declaration
Date of Government’s friendly settlement declaration
Friendly settlement sums (in euros)
1.
27466/05
20/07/2005
Petar Alexandrov KIROV
1938
Burgas
Gospodinka
Alexandrova KIROVA
1940
Burgas
11/1999 –
16/04/2007
Civil proceedings for damages
7 years and 5 months (3 levels of jurisdiction)
Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)
Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)
2 April 2012
6 July 2012
1,500
per applicant
2.
25966/07
08/06/2007
Katerina Dimitrova IBUSHEVA
1919
Plovdiv
15/07/2002–
ongoing
Rei-vindicatio proceedings
9 years and 5 months (3 levels of jurisdiction)
Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)
Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)
Art. 1 of Protocol No. 1 (impact of length on property rights)
4 April 2012
6 July 2012
2,900
3.
37430/07
13/07/2007
Petriya Vasileva TABAKOVA
1955
Pazardzhik
11/2001–
13/03/2007
Labour dispute
5 years and 4 months
(3 levels of jurisdiction)
Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)
Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)
Art. 1 of Protocol No. 1 (impact of length on property rights)
4 April 2012
6 July 2012
1,300
4.
41459/07
20/09/2007
Nevena
Rangelova
TASHEVA
1961
Plovdiv
12/05/1994 – 20/03/2007
Civil proceedings concerning a preliminary sale-purchase contract
12 years and 10 months (for three levels of jurisdiction)
Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)
Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)
Art. 1 of Protocol No. 1 (impact of length on property rights)
28 March 2012
6 July 2012
6,100
5.
19058/08
07/02/2008
Valeriy Hristov SPASOV
1962
Pleven
22/05/2000 – 10/12/2007
Labour dispute - dismissal
7 years and 6 months
(three levels of jurisdictions)
Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)
28 March 2012
6 July 2012
2,000
6.
22637/08
07/04/2008
Emilia Nikolova KALKOVSKA-MITEVA
1937
Sofia
Beginning of the proceedings: 03/09/1986
Period starting from 07/09/1992 (ratification of the Convention by Bulgaria) – 02/11/2010
Partitioning of property proceedings
18 years and 1 month (3 levels of jurisdiction for the first and for the second phase)
Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)
29 March 2012
6 July 2012
7,000
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy