FOURTH SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 10815/17
Iudith PALEACU against Romania
and 5 other applications
(see appended table)
The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 29 November 2018 as a Committee composed of:
Georges Ravarani, President,
Marko Bošnjak,
Péter Paczolay, judges,
and Liv Tigerstedt, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above applications lodged on the various dates indicated in the appended table,
Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicants,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
1. The list of applicants is set out in the appended table.
2. The applicants’ complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and Article 1 of the Protocol No. 1 concerning the non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of domestic judgments, as well as the complaint in application no. 7632/18 under Article 13 of the Convention, concerning the lack of an effective remedy, were communicated to the Romanian Government (“the Government”).
THE LAW
A. Joinder of the applications
3. Having regard to the similar subject matter of the applications, the Court finds it appropriate to examine them jointly in a single decision.
B. Complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and Article 1 of the Protocol No. 1
1. Preliminary issues
4. As regards application no. 79826/17 the Court notes that the domestic judgment of 24 November 2008, which became final on 12 February 2009, did not include an outstanding obligation in favour of the applicant. The Court therefore considers that the complaints in application no. 79826/17 are incompatible ratione personae with the provisions of the Convention within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 (a) and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 § 4 of the Convention.
5. In respect of application no. 7632/18 the Government submitted that the complaints of the applicant company should be rejected for non‑observance of the six-month rule. According to the Government, in view of the fact that the applicant company was an unsecured creditor of a company under liquidation (creditor chirografar), the time-limit had started to run on 27 May 2015, the date when the recovery plan, which did not include payment to the unsecured creditors, was made available to the applicant.
6. The Court reiterates that in cases involving the execution of a final court judgment a continuing situation ends, in principle, on the date of the enforcement of the relevant judgment or when an “objective impossibility” to enforce such a judgment is duly acknowledged (see Sokolov and Others v. Serbia (dec.), no. 30859/10, § 29, 14 January 2014).
7. Turning to the above-mentioned case, the Court observes that the six‑month time-limit started to run on 27 May 2015, when the “objective impossibility” to enforce the outstanding judgment in respect of the applicant company became known to it. The Court therefore agrees with the Government and finds that these complaints are inadmissible for non‑compliance with the six-month rule set out in Article 35 § 1 of the Convention and must be rejected pursuant to Article 35 §§ 1 and 4 of the Convention.
8. The Court further finds that it does not need to rule on the rest of the preliminary objections raised by the Government, because the complaints in the remaining applications are in any event inadmissible, as presented below.
2. Remaining applications
9. 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 non-enforcement or the delayed enforcement of the judgments given in the applicants’ favour in the remaining applications.
10. In particular, the Court notes that in applications nos. 10815/17, 22903/17 and 22908/17 the judgments in question were enforced within periods ranging from 5 months and 1 year and 8 months. In the particular circumstances of the cases, taking into account the conduct of the applicants and the conduct of the authorities, the Court notes that these periods are not so excessive as to raise an arguable claim under the Convention (see, for example, Şerbănescu v. Romania (dec.), no. 43638/10, §§ 9-10, 1 December 2016).
11. In respect of application no. 33139/17 the Court notes that the outstanding judgments concern the payment of a remaining amount of 690 Romanian lei (RON) (approximately 150 euros (EUR)). In light of the circumstances of the present case and the applicant’s submissions, the Court concludes that the applicant has not suffered a significant disadvantage as a result of the alleged violations of the Convention.
12. The Court further observes that the problem of non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of court judgments in Romania has been addressed on numerous occasions in its judgments (see, among many other authorities, Foundation Hostel for Students of the Reformed Church and Stanomirescu v. Romania, nos. 2699/03 and 43597/07, 7 January 2014, and Ciocodeică v. Romania, no. 27413/09, 16 January 2018). The examination of this application on the merits would not bring any new element to the Court’s existing case-law. The Court therefore concludes that respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols does not require an examination of the application on the merits (see Burov v. Moldova (dec.), no. 38875/03, 14 June 2011).
13. In view of the above, the Court finds that these complaints are manifestly ill-founded and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 3 and 4 of the Convention.
C. Other alleged violations under well-established case-law
14. In application no. 7632/18, the applicant company also complained of the lack of an effective remedy in domestic law in respect of its non‑enforcement complaint.
15. The Court has found that the complaints of the applicant company under Article 6 and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention are inadmissible for non-compliance with the six-month rule (see §§ 5-7 above). It follows that the complaint under Article 13 is also out of time and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 1 and 4 of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to join the applications;
Declares the applications inadmissible.
Done in English and notified in writing on 20 December 2018.
Liv TigerstedtGeorges Ravarani
Acting Deputy RegistrarPresident
APPENDIX
List of applications raising complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and Article 1 of the Protocol No. 1
(non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of domestic judgments)
No.
Application no.
Date of introduction
Applicant’s name
Date of birth / Date of registration
Relevant domestic judgment
Start date of non-enforcement period
End date of non-enforcement period
Length of enforcement proceedings
Other complaints under well-established case-law
10815/17
06/03/2017
Iudith Paleacu
04/05/1928
Bucharest County Court, 07/10/2011
20/05/2016
17/01/2018
1 year and 7 months and 29 days
22903/17
16/03/2017
Gheorghe Arișanu
29/09/1940
Beclean District Court, 21/09/2016
21/09/2016
20/02/2017
5 months
22908/17
15/03/2017
Boris Barouhoglu
04/07/1922
Beclean District Court, 21/09/2016
21/09/2016
20/02/2017
5 months
33139/17
25/04/2017
Alexandru Vînătoru
17/03/1955,
represented by Gabriela Virginia Enea, a lawyer practising in Craiova
Filiași District Court, 02/05/2007
Dolj County Court, 03/10/2007
Dolj County Court, 15/05/2012
03/10/2007
03/10/2007
15/05/2012
pending
More than 10 years and 5 months and 21 days
pending
More than 10 years and 5 months and 21 days
pending
More than 5 years and 10 months and 9 days
79826/17
13/11/2017
Ionela Puia
25/02/1974
Ialomița County Court, 24/11/2008
12/02/2009
pending
More than 9 years and 8 months and 14 days
7632/18
31/01/2018
Centrul de Cercetare pentru Materiale Macromoleculare și Membrane (CCMMM) S.A.
21/12/1992,
represented by Cristiana Vărășteanu, a lawyer practising in Bucharest
Vâlcea County Court, 26/06/2013
03/10/2013
pending
More than 4 years and 6 months and 2 days
Art. 13 - lack of an effective remedy in domestic law in respect of non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of domestic judgments.
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