THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 793/13
Ion John LIVINGSTONE and Rodica LIVINGSTONE
against Romania
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 2 September 2014 as a Committee composed of:
Alvina Gyulumyan, President,
Johannes Silvis,
Valeriu Griţco, judges,
and Marialena Tsirli, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 17 December 2012,
Having regard to the declaration submitted by the respondent Government on 2 April 2014 requesting the Court to strike the application out of the list of cases and the applicants’ reply to that declaration,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The applicants, Mr Ion John Livingstone and Ms Rodica Livingstone, are Australian and Romanian nationals respectively who were born in 1948 and 1954 respectively and live in Iași.
The Romanian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms C. Brumar, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The applicants complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the length of civil proceedings in which they were involved. The proceedings lasted for nine years and nine months for three levels of jurisdiction.
On 17 September 2013, the complaint was communicated to the Government.
THE LAW
After the failure of attempts to reach a friendly settlement, by a letter of 2 April 2014 the Government informed the Court that they proposed to make a unilateral declaration with a view to resolving the issue raised by the application. They further requested the Court to strike out the application in accordance with Article 37 of the Convention.
The declaration provided as follows:
« Le Gouvernement déclare, au moyen de la présente déclaration unilatérale, qu’il reconnaît qu’en l’espèce il y a eu violation de l’article 6 § 1 de la Convention en raison de la durée de la procédure judiciaire litigieuse.
Le Gouvernement déclare être prêt à verser aux requérants, Mme Rodica Livingstone et M. Ion John Livingstone, au titre de satisfaction équitable la somme de 2 160 (deux mille cent soixante) euros, conjointement, montant qu’il considère comme raisonnable compte tenu de la jurisprudence de la Cour.
Cette somme qui couvrira tout préjudice matériel et moral ainsi que les frais et dépens, ne sera soumise à aucun impôt. Elle sera versée en lei roumains au taux applicable à la date du paiement sur le compte bancaire indiqué par les requérants, dans les trois mois suivant la date de la notification de la décision rendue conformément à l’article 37 § 1 de la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme.
A défaut de règlement dans ledit délai, le Gouvernement s’engage à verser, à compter de l’expiration de celui-ci et jusqu’au règlement effectif de la somme en question, un intérêt simple à un taux égale à celui de la facilité de prêt marginal de la Banque centrale européenne, augmenté de trois points de pourcentage.
Ce versement vaudra règlement définitif de l’affaire.
Le Gouvernement invite respectueusement la Cour à dire que la poursuite de l’examen de la partie de la requête concernant la durée de la procédure n’est plus justifiée et à la rayer du rôle en vertu de l’article 37 § 1 c) de la Convention. »
By a letter of 4 June 2014, the applicants indicated that they were not satisfied with the terms of the unilateral declaration in so far as the compensation offered by the Government was not satisfactory.
The Court recalls that Article 37 of the Convention provides that it may at any stage of the proceedings decide to strike an application out of its list of cases where the circumstances lead to one of the conclusions specified, under (a), (b) or (c) of paragraph 1 of that Article. Article 37 § 1 (c) enables the Court in particular 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”.
It also recalls that in certain circumstances, it may strike out an application under Article 37 § 1(c) on the basis of a unilateral declaration by a respondent Government even if the applicant wishes the examination of the case to be continued.
To this end, the Court will examine carefully the declaration in the light of the principles emerging from its case-law, in particular the Tahsin Acar judgment (Tahsin Acar v. Turkey, [GC], no. 26307/95, §§ 75‑77, ECHR 2003-VI; WAZA Spółka z o.o. v. Poland (dec.), no. 11602/02, 26 June 2007).
The Court has established in a number of cases, including those brought against Romania, its practice concerning complaints about the violation of one’s right to a hearing within a reasonable time (see, for example, Frydlender v. France [GC], no. 30979/96, § 43, ECHR 2000-VII and Vlad and Others v. Romania, nos. 40756/06, 41508/07 and 50806/07, § 146, 26 November 2013).
Having regard to the nature of the admissions contained in the Government’s declaration, as well as the amount of compensation proposed the Court considers that it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the application (Article 37 § 1(c)).
Moreover, in light of the above considerations, and in particular given the clear and extensive case-law on the topic, 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 application (Article 37 § 1 in fine).
Finally, the Court emphasises that, should the Government fail to comply with the terms of their unilateral declaration, the application could be restored to the list in accordance with Article 37 § 2 of the Convention (Josipović v. Serbia (dec.), no. 18369/07, 4 March 2008).
In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Takes note of the terms of the respondent Government’s declaration under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and of the modalities for ensuring compliance with the undertakings referred to therein;
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention.
Marialena TsirliAlvina Gyulumyan
Deputy RegistrarPresident
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy