European Court of Human Rights

FOURTH SECTION

DECISION

PILOT-JUDGMENT PROCEDURE

Application no. 6798/03
by Edward CZERW
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 1 February 2003,

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 Edward Czerw, is a Polish national who was born in 1933 and lives in Krasnystaw.

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. 6798/03

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

On 16 April 1946 the State Repatriation Office (Państwowy Urząd Repatriacyjny) in Lublin issued a certificate no. 2927 confirming that the applicant's father had owned a piece of real property in the territories beyond the Bug River.

On 10 April 2002 the Krasnystaw District Court (Sąd Rejonowy) gave a decision declaring that the applicant and his siblings had acquired their late parents' estate and that they were entitled to receive one third each.

On 19 December 1990 the applicant asked the Head of the Krasnystaw District Office (Kierownik Urzędu Rejonowego) to enable him to acquire State property in compensation for the property abandoned in the territories beyond the Bug River.

On 10 January 1991 the authorities informed him that his claim had been entered in the relevant register as claim no. 98 but its realisation depended on the adoption of future measures by Parliament in respect of Bug River claims.

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 submit any document stating the current value of his claim. Nor did he produce any information showing 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