European Court of Human Rights

THIRD SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 31156/07
by Dick SKÖLDINGER
against Sweden

The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 18 November 2008 as a Chamber composed of:

Josep Casadevall, President,
Elisabet Fura-Sandström,
Corneliu Bîrsan,
Egbert Myjer,
Ineta Ziemele,
Luis López Guerra,
Ann Power, judges,
and Santiago Quesada, Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 10 July 2007,

Having regard to the letter submitted by the Swedish Government on 22 July 2008,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicant, Mr Dick Sköldinger, was a Swedish national, born in 1943, who lived in Kopparberg. The Swedish Government (“the Government”) are represented by their Agent, Mr Bengt Sjöberg, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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

For years the applicant abused alcohol and was consequently subjected to various compulsory care orders pursuant to the provisions of the Care of Abusers Act (lagen om vård av missbrukare i vissa fall, 1988:870). The care orders were requested by the social welfare district committee (sociala distriktsnämnden) and approved by the administrative courts and entailed the applicant’s placement in a so-called LVM institution for six months each time.

COMPLAINT

Without invoking any specific Articles of the Convention, the applicant complained that he was subjected to compulsory care orders.

THE LAW

By letter dated 22 July 2008 the Government informed the Court that the applicant had deceased in October 2007.

By letter dated 8 August 2008, the applicant’s estate was notified of the pending application and requested to inform the Court by 2 October 2008 whether the applicant’s heirs wished to pursue it. Attention was drawn to Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention, which provides that the Court may strike a case out of its list of cases where the circumstances lead to the conclusion that nobody intend to pursue the application. No response has been received from the applicant’s estate or his heirs.

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. In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list.

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

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

Santiago Quesada Josep Casadevall
Registrar President