European Court of Human Rights

FOURTH SECTION

DECISION

PILOT-JUDGMENT PROCEDURE

Application no. 27029/02
by Henryk FILIPOWICZ
against Poland

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 23 September 2008 as a Chamber composed of:

Nicolas Bratza, President,
Lech Garlicki,
Giovanni Bonello,
Ljiljana Mijović,
David Thór Björgvinsson,
Ján Šikuta,
Päivi Hirvelä, judges,
and Lawrence Early, Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 8 July 2002,

Having regard to the decision to apply the pilot-judgment procedure and to adjourn its consideration of applications deriving from the same systemic problem identified in the case of Broniowski v. Poland (no. 31443/96),

Having regard to the decisions to strike the applications Wolkenberg and Others v. Poland (no. 50003/99) and Witkowska-Toboła v. Poland (no. 11208/02) out of the Court's list of cases,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicant, Mr Henryk Filipowicz, is a Polish national who was born in 1929 and lives in Nysa.

A.  Historical background to Bug River cases before the Court

(See E.G. v. Poland, no. 50425/99, §§ 2-5).

B.  Particular circumstances of case no. 27029/02

The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.

Pursuant to decisions of 21 December 1998 given by the Nysa District Court (Sąd Rejonowy) and 30 October 1998 given by the Strzelce Opolskie District Court, the applicant acquired the entire estate left by his parents.

On 25 April 1999 the Opole Regional Court (Sąd Okręgowy) gave a declaratory judgment stating that the applicant's parents had owned real property in the territories beyond the Bug River.

On 13 July 1999 the applicant asked the Mayor of Nysa (Starosta) to enable him to acquire State property in compensation for the property abandoned in the territories beyond the Bug River.

On 28 July 1999 the authorities informed him that his claim had been entered in the relevant register as claim no. 59.

On 21 September 1999 the Mayor of Nysa (Starosta) issued a decision confirming that the applicant had the right to compensation for the property abandoned by his family, valued at 420,000 Polish zlotys (PLN).

On 17 October 2000 the applicant acquired State property in compensation for the property abandoned in the territories beyond the Bug River, valued at PLN 160,000.

On an unspecified date the applicant lodged a claim for compensation for the Bug River property against the State Treasury. The action was unsuccessful. On 19 March 2002 the Wrocław Court of Appeal (Sąd Apelacyjny) rejected the claim for lack of substantiation.

The applicant's subsequent attempts to acquire State property were unsuccessful. The only possibility of enforcing the claim was to participate in competitive bids for the sale of State property. However, the State authorities throughout Poland officially acknowledged the acute shortage of State-owned land designated for the realisation of the Bug River claims.

This fact and the fact that at the material time it was the authorities' common practice to desist from organising auctions for Bug River claimants or to openly deny them the opportunity to enforce their entitlement through the statutory bidding procedure was established by the Court in the Broniowski judgment (see Broniowski, cited above, §§ 48-61, 69-87 and 168-176).

The applicant did not inform the Court whether he had initiated proceedings under the Law on the realisation of the right to compensation for property left beyond the present borders of the Polish State (Ustawa o realizacji prawa do rekompensaty z tytułu pozostawienia nieruchomości poza obecnymi granicami państwa polskiego) (“the July 2005 Act”) in order to obtain compensation for the Bug River property.

C.  Relevant domestic law and practice in respect of Bug River claims

(See E.G. v. Poland, no. 50425/99, §§ 16-17).

COMPLAINT

(See E.G. v. Poland, no. 50425/99, § 18).

THE LAW

(See E.G. v. Poland, no. 50425/99, §§ 19-29).

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

Lawrence Early Nicolas Bratza
Registrar President