SECOND SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 17335/07
Budislav MINIĆ against Montenegro
and 5 other applications
(see list appended)
The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting on 26 April 2016 as a Committee composed of:
Valeriu Griţco, President,
Nebojša Vučinić,
Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström, judges,
and Stanley Naismith, Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above applications lodged between 7 April 2007 and 23 August 2007 (see the attached Annex),
Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the cases,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The six applicants in the present cases lodged six applications (the first applicant lodged two applications; and the fifth and sixth applicants lodged one application; for additional personal details see the attached Annex). They are all represented before the Court by Mr R. Šuković and Mr B. Minić (who is also the first applicant), lawyers practising in Bijelo Polje and Kolašin, respectively, except for the first applicant himself, who is represented by Mr R. Šuković alone.
The Montenegrin Government (“the Government”) were first represented by Mr Z. Pažin, their Agent at the time, and then by Mrs V. Pavličić, their newly-appointed Agent.
All the applicants complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the lack of access to a court in that the domestic courts refused to examine their compensation claims on the merits.
The second, third and fourth applicants also complained about the length of civil proceedings against other private persons. They also invoked Article 13 of the Convention in that they lacked an effective domestic remedy for the length of various domestic proceedings.
On 14 January and 8 February 2016 respectively the Court received friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties under which the applicants agreed to waive any further claims against Montenegro in respect of the facts giving rise to these applications against an undertaking by the Government to pay them ex gratia the amounts specified in the appended table to cover any and all non-pecuniary damage, which includes costs and expenses, plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicants. These sums will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court. In the event of failure to pay this sum within the said three-month period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on it, 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 payment will constitute the final resolution of the cases.
THE LAW
The Court considers that, in accordance with Rule 42 § 1 of the Rules of Court, the applications should be joined, given their similar factual and legal background.
The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the applications. 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 in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention.
Done in English and notified in writing on 19 May 2016.
Stanley Naismith Valeriu Griţco
RegistrarPresident
APPENDIX
No.
Application
no.
Lodged on
Applicant name
Nationality
Place of residence
Represented by
Friendly settlement amounts
17335/07
07/04/2007
Budislav MINIĆ
(the first applicant)
Montenegrin
Kolašin
Radivoje ŠUKOVIĆ
EUR 3,600
17337/07
07/04/2007
Budislav MINIĆ
(the first applicant)
Montenegrin
Kolašin
Radivoje ŠUKOVIĆ
EUR 3,600
17389/07
07/04/2007
Žarko BULATOVIĆ
(the second applicant)
Montenegrin
Kolašin
Budislav MINIĆ and
Radivoje ŠUKOVIĆ
EUR 4,680
17403/07
07/04/2007
Darinka MINIĆ
(the third applicant)
Montenegrin
Kolašin
Budislav MINIĆ and
Radivoje ŠUKOVIĆ
EUR 4,680
50417/07
23/08/2007
Ɖurađ RADOVIĆ
(the fourth applicant)
Montenegrin
Kolašin
Budislav MINIĆ and
Radivoje ŠUKOVIĆ
EUR 4,680
37837/07
20/08/2007
Milidrag BULATOVIĆ
(the fifth applicant)
Montenegrin
Kolašin
and “Goleš”
(the sixth applicant)
Montenegrin
Kolašin
Budislav MINIĆ and
Radivoje ŠUKOVIĆ
EUR 3,600
EUR 3,600
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