THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 7946/14
Dušanka NOVKOVIĆ
against Serbia
(see appended table)
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 29 August 2019 as a Committee composed of:
Dmitry Dedov, President,
Alena Poláčková,
Gilberto Felici, judges,
and Liv Tigerstedt, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 3 January 2014,
Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicant,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The applicant’s details are set out in the appended table.
The applicant’s complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention concerning the excessive length of civil proceedings were communicated to the Serbian Government (“the Government”).
THE LAW
In the present application, having examined all the material before it, the Court considers that for the reasons stated below, the respondent Government cannot be held liable for the excessive length of the impugned civil proceedings.
As to the period from 9 August 2010 until 7 November 2013, when the Constitutional Court dismissed the applicant’s complaint, the proceedings had lasted three years and three months for two levels of jurisdiction, which cannot be considered excessive. It follows that this part of the application is manifestly ill-founded within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 (a) of the Convention.
As to the subsequent period, the applicant failed to exhaust all effective domestic remedies as required by Article 35 § 1 of the Convention since she should have complained again to the Constitutional Court about any further delays (see Becová v. Slovakia (dec.), no. 23788/06, 18 September 2007).
In view of the above, the application is inadmissible and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 § 4 of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Declares the application inadmissible.
Done in English and notified in writing on 19 September 2019.
Liv TigerstedtDmitry Dedov
Acting Deputy RegistrarPresident
APPENDIX
Application raising complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention
(excessive length of civil proceedings)
Application no.
Date of introduction
Applicant’s name
Date of birth
Start of proceedings
End of proceedings
Total length
Levels of jurisdiction
Relevant domestic decision
7946/14
03/01/2014
Dušanka Novković
12/03/1962
09/08/2010
04/09/2015
5 years and 27 days
2 levels of jurisdiction
Constitutional Court
Už-1765/2013
7 November 2013
Inadmissible
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