FIFTH SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 12931/05
by Matjaž LAH
against Slovenia
The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting on 11 October 2011 as a Committee composed of:
Ganna Yudkivska, President,
Boštjan M. Zupančič,
Angelika Nußberger, judges,
and Stephen Phillips, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 30 March 2005,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
THE FACTS
The applicant, Mr Matjaž Lah, is a Slovenian national who was born in 1946 and lives in Ljubljana. He was represented before the Court by Mr D. Đuragić, a lawyer practising in Ljubljana. The Slovenian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr L. Bembič, State Attorney.
On 28 November 1995 the applicant instituted civil proceedings against Lottery Slovenia (“the LS”) seeking compensation for damage resulting from the LS’s unilateral termination of a contract signed between them. Further to the remittal of the case, the Ljubljana District Court delivered a judgment in favour of the applicant on 22 May 2003, which became final and enforceable on 16 September 2004. Subsequently, the applicant lodged a request for execution of the aforementioned judgment with the Ljubljana Local Court. The request was upheld. On 20 January 2006 the Ljubljana Local Court discontinued the execution. However, it would appear that the execution proceedings concerning one part of the applicant’s claim remained open but were closed on 11 September 2006 further to a letter from the applicant dated 27 January 2006 informing the court that his claim had been fully paid. On 12 May 2006 the LS lodged a counterclaim against the applicant, claiming that it had overpaid the award in his favour as interest had been wrongly calculated. These proceedings are still ongoing.
THE LAW
The applicant complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention that the domestic proceedings were unreasonably lengthy. Under Article 13, he also complained that the remedies in respect of this complaint were ineffective.
On 7 March 2011, after the Government had been given notice of the application, they informed the Court that a settlement proposal had been sent to the applicant in the context of the domestic settlement proceedings based on section 25 of the Act on the Protection of the Right to a Trial without Undue Delay (Zakon o varstvu pravice do sojenja brez nepotrebnega odlašanja, Official Journal, No. 49/2006). The proposal included an acknowledged of a violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time in respect of the civil proceedings that ended on 16 September 2004 as well as an offer of 900 euros (EUR) for non-pecuniary damage and EUR 275 for costs and expenses incurred in the proceedings before the Court. On 9 May 2011 the applicant’s representative informed the Court that the applicant had reached a settlement with the State Attorney’s Office, that he therefore had no interest in pursuing the proceedings before the Court and wished to withdraw the application.
The Court notes that the matter has been resolved at the domestic level and that the applicant does not wish to pursue his application. In the light of the foregoing, and in the absence of any special circumstances regarding respect for the rights guaranteed by the Convention or its Protocols, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (a) and (b) of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court unanimously
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.
Stephen PhillipsGanna Yudkivska
Deputy RegistrarPresident
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy