CEDH · CASELAW;DECISIONS;ADMISSIBILITY;ENG — 24 novembre 2009

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Zupančič,   Alvina Gyulumyan,   Egbert Myjer,   Luis López Guerra,   Ann Power, judges, and Santiago Quesada, Section Registrar , Having regard to the above applications, Having regard to the Government’s settlement proposals made to the applicants, Having deliberated, decides as follows: THE FACTS The applicants except Mr L. Gaši are all nationals of Slovenia (see the attached appendix). The applicant Mr L. Gaši is a national of Serbia. The applicants Ms Lampreht, Ms Poteko and Mr Gaši were represented before the Court by Mrs   M.   Končan Verstovšek, a lawyer practising in Celje. Mr Turina, Ms Turina and Mr Kavčnik were represented by Mr   Z.   Lipej, a lawyer practising in Medvode. Mr Valentinčič was represented by Mr L. Benigar Tošič, a lawyer practising in Ljubljana. The applicants Mr and Ms Žagar were represented by Ms   M.   Krainer, a lawyer practising in Radovljica. Mr Zabukovnik was represented by Mr F. Repnik, a lawyer practising in Celje. Mr Tojnko was represented by Mr   B.   Verstovšek, a lawyer practising in Celje. Mr. Modrijančič was represented by Mr A. Fijavž, a lawyer practising in Celje. Ms Ibrišič was represented by Mr   J.   Žorž, a lawyer practising in Koper. The applicant Ms   Miklič was not represented before the Court. The Slovenian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr   Lucijan Bembič, State Attorney-General. A.     The circumstances of the case The applicants were parties to proceedings which terminated before 1   January 2007. B.     Relevant domestic law The Act on the Protection of the Right to a Trial without Undue Delay (Zakon o varstvu pravice do sojenja brez nepotrebnega odlašanja , Official Journal, No. 49/2006 – “the 2006 Act”) became operational on 1   January   2007. Section 25 lays down the following transitional rules in relation to applications already pending before the Court: Section 25 - Just satisfaction for damage sustained prior to implementation of this Act “(1) In cases where a violation of the right to a trial without undue delay has already ceased and the party has made a claim for just satisfaction with the international court before the date of implementation of this Act, the State Attorney’s Office shall offer the party a settlement on the amount of just satisfaction within four months of the date of receipt of the case referred by the international court for the settlement procedure. The party shall submit a settlement proposal to the State Attorney’s Office within two months of the date of receipt of the proposal of the State Attorney’s Office. The State Attorney’s Office shall decide on the proposal as soon as possible and within a period of four months at the latest..... (2) If the proposal for settlement referred to in paragraph 1 of this section is not acceded to or the State Attorney’s Office and the party fail to negotiate an agreement within four months of the date on which the party made its proposal, the party may lodge a claim [ for just satisfaction ] with the competent court under this Act. The party may lodge a claim within six months of receiving the State Attorney’s Office reply that the party’s proposal referred to in the previous paragraph was not acceded to, or after the expiry of the period fixed in the previous paragraph for the State Attorney’s Office to decide whether to proceed with settlement. Irrespective of the type or amount of the claim, the provisions of the Civil Procedure Act concerning small claims shall apply in proceedings before a court.” COMPLAINTS The applicants complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention that the civil proceedings had been excessively long. They also complained that they did not have an effective domestic remedy in this regard (Article 13 of the Convention). THE LAW In the present cases, the Court notes that, after the Government had been informed of the applications under Article 54 § 2(a) of the Rules of Court, all the applicants received the State Attorney’s Office’s settlement proposals under section 25 of the 2006 Act acknowledging a violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time and offering redress for non-pecuniary damage (see the appendix). It further notes that the applicants have since then been in a position to either negotiate a settlement with the State Attorney’s Office or, if that would be unsuccessful, lodge a “claim for just satisfaction” in accordance with the relevant provisions of the 2006 Act (see “Relevant domestic law” above). The latter has been considered by the Court to constitute appropriate means of redressing a breach of the reasonable time requirement of Article 6 that has already occurred (see Pohlen v Slovenia (dec.), no.   28457/03, §§ 40-43, 3   June   2008, and Kešelj and 6 others v. Slovenia (dec.), nos. 20674/05, 20680/05, 28380/05, 28441/05, 38861/05, 39198/05 and 44915/05, 19   May   2009). The Court reiterates Article   37 of the Convention, which in the relevant part reads as follows: “1.     The Court may at any stage of the proceedings decide to strike an application out of its list of cases where the circumstances lead to the conclusion that ... (c)     for any other reason established by the Court, it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the application. However, the Court shall continue the examination of the application if respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and the Protocols thereto so requires. Having regard to the foregoing, the Court considers that it is no longer justified to continue with the examination of the applications as far as they concern length of proceedings and that they should be struck out of the list of cases in accordance with Article 37   §   1   (c). In reaching this conclusion, the Court has taken into account its competence under Article 37 § 2 of the Convention to restore the case to its list of cases if it considers that the circumstances justify such a course. For these reasons, the Court unanimously Decides to join the applications; Decides to strike the applications out of its list of cases. Santiago Quesada   Josep Casadevall   Registrar   President   Appendix   No. Application No. Applicant’s Name Year of Birth Address Date of Introduction Date of settlement proposal or agreement signed by the State Attorney 1. 39002/05 Martina LAMPREHT 1956 Slovenske Konjice 13/10/2005 16/02/2009 2. 15884/06 Ivana POTEKO 1963 Griže 09/03/2006 01/09/2009 3. 23043/06 Marjan TURINA Bogdana TURINA 1953 1955 Dobravlje 04/05/2006 19/05/2009 4. 25937/06 Jože VALENTINČIČ 1946 Ljubljana 05/06/2006 12/06/2009 5. 28373/06 Dunja MIKLIČ 1957 Trebnje 12/06/2006 29/05/2009 6. 37050/06 Latif GAŠI 1962 Klina, Serbia 05/09/2006 16/09/2009 7. 38615/06 Milan Bogdan ŽAGAR 1936 Brežice 15/09/2006 13/08/2009 8. 41353/06 Tadej ZABUKOVNIK 1983 Polzela 29/09/2006 16/09/2009 9. 41362/06 Jurij KAVČNIK 1975 Brezovica pri Ljubljani 29/09/2006 29/07/2009 10. 43992/06 Jožefa ŽAGAR 1939 Brežice 15/09/2006 13/08/2009 11. 44405/06 Zvonimir TOJNKO 1966 Celje 18/09/2006 10/09/2009 12. 45619/06 Branko MODRIJANČIČ 1960 Ljubljana 28/09/2006 23/07/2009 13. 50592/06 Emira IBRIŠIČ 1955 Izola 29/11/2006 10/06/2009