THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 30619/08
Yekaterina Grigoryevna SOKOLOVA
against Russia
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 7 April 2022 as a Committee composed of:
Darian Pavli, President,
Peeter Roosma,
Frédéric Krenc, judges,
and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 28 March 2008,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The applicant, Ms Yekaterina Grigoryevna Sokolova, was born in 1934.
The applicant’s complaints under Article 6 § 1 and Article 13 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention concerning the delayed enforcement of domestic decisions and the lack of any effective remedy in domestic law were communicated to the Russian Government (“the Government”).
On 11 June 2020 the Court (Third Section) sitting as a Committee, delivered a decision in a group of cases, which included the current application (see Sokolova and others v. Russia (dec.), nos. 30619/08 and 5 others, 11 June 2020). In particular, it decided to strike the application out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention on the basis of a unilateral declaration submitted by the Government awarding the applicant the amount of 1,260 euros (EUR) in respect of pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and costs and expenses.
On 15 December 2020 the Government made a request to restore the application to the Court’s list of cases. They informed the Court of the applicant’s death on 5 August 2019. They further noted that the applicant’s daughter, Ms Litsova, had failed to inform the Court thereof in due time and that she had not manifested intention to join the proceedings in the applicant’s place. The Government withdrew the unilateral declaration.
On 4 February 2021 the Court decided, under Rule 43 § 5 of the Rules of the Court, to disjoin the current application from the other applications decided by the Court in the case of Sokolova and Others and to restore it to the Court’s list of cases. The parties were notified of the said decision and Ms Litsova was requested to inform the Court whether she wished to pursue the application in the late applicant’s stead.
By letter dated 13 March 2021, Ms Litsova expressed her wish to pursue the application. She submitted copies of the birth certificate and of the judgment of the Leninskiy District Court of Kostroma of 1 March 2021 recognising her as Ms Sokolova’s legal heir. The Representative of the Russian Federation to the Court took part in the proceedings. The parties did not attend the hearing. Nor did they appeal against the judgment and on an unspecified date it became final.
THE LAW
Following the applicant’s death, the Court must address the question of Ms Litsova’s right to pursue the application originally lodged by the applicant.
In this connection, the Court observes that it has been its practice to strike applications out of the list of cases in the absence of any heir or close relative who has expressed in a timely manner a wish to pursue the application, without providing any explanation for such failure (see, among other authorities, Association of Victims of Romanian Judges and Others v. Romania (revision), no. 47732/06, § 5-11, 22 March 2016).
Turning to the circumstances of the present case, the Court sees no reason to depart form this approach in the present case. It takes into account that the applicant’s death occurred approximately ten months before the date of the Court’s decision and that the applicant’s daughter failed to provide any valid reason for not being able to inform the Court in a timely manner about it.
The Court therefore concludes that Ms Litsova does not have a legitimate interest to pursue the proceedings before the Court in the applicant’s stead. Nor does it consider that respect for human rights require it to continue the examination of the case.
In these circumstances the Court finds that it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the application and concludes pursuant to Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention that the case should be struck out of the list.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.
Done in English and notified in writing on 5 May 2022.
Viktoriya Maradudina Darian Pavli
Acting Deputy Registrar President