European Court of Human Rights

SECOND SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 23978/07
by Privislav LAZAREVIĆ
against Serbia

The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting on 21 October 2008 as a Chamber composed of:

Françoise Tulkens, President,
Ireneu Cabral Barreto,
Vladimiro Zagrebelsky,
Danutė Jočienė,
Dragoljub Popović,
András Sajó,
Işıl Karakaş, judges,
and Sally Dollé, Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 28 May 2007,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicant, Mr Privislav Lazarević, is a Serbian national who was born in 1937 and lives in Valjevo. He was represented before the Court by Mr S. Aleksić, a lawyer practising in the same town. The Serbian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr S. Carić.

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

In 1984 the applicant filed a claim with the Labour Court (Osnovni sud udruZenog rada) in Šabac, seeking compensation for the unauthorised use of his technical innovation by his employer.

Following a partial decision and three remittals of the case, on 27 June 2006 the Municipal Court (Opštinski sud) in Valjevo relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the District Court (OkruZni sud) in Valjevo.

On 24 January 2008 the District Court ruled in favour of the applicant.

On 16 July 2008 the Supreme Court of Serbia upheld this judgment on appeal.

It would appear that the respondent filed an appeal on points of law against this judgment.

COMPLAINT

The applicant complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the length of the proceedings.

THE LAW

On 23 July 2008 the applicant accepted a friendly settlement offer, whereby the Government acknowledged that there had been a violation of the “reasonable time” requirement contained in Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and promised to pay him the equivalent of 3,100 euros in Serbian dinars on account of the non-pecuniary damage suffered, as well as any expenses incurred. The applicant, in return, agreed to withdraw his application once this sum was paid, and waived any further claims in respect of the present case.

On the same day the respondent State paid the above-specified amount.

On 24 July 2008 the applicant informed the Court that he withdrew his application.

In view of the above, the Court considers that the applicant no longer wishes to pursue his application, within the meaning of Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention. Furthermore, in accordance with Article 37 § 1 in fine, the Court finds no special circumstances regarding respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols which require the continued examination of the case.

For these reasons, the Court unanimously,

Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.

Sally Dollé F. Tulkens
Registrar President