European Court of Human Rights

FIRST SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 54077/07
by Branko MARŠANIĆ
against Croatia

The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting on 4 December 2008 as a Chamber composed of:

Christos Rozakis, President,
Nina Vajić,
Khanlar Hajiyev,
Dean Spielmann,
Sverre Erik Jebens,
Giorgio Malinverni,
George Nicolaou, judges,
and Søren Nielsen, Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 31 October 2007,

Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the case,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicant, Mr Branko Maršanić, is a Croatian national who was born in 1924 and lives in Zagreb. He was represented before the Court by Mrs J. Sloković Glumac, a lawyer practising in Zagreb. The Croatian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mrs Š. StaZnik

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

1. Civil and enforcement proceedings

On 2 October 1995 the applicant brought a civil action against a certain A.V. in the Pag Municipal Court (Općinski sud u Pagu) seeking repayment of 150,000 German marks he had lent him in January 1994 under a loan agreement.

On 23 June 1997 the court ruled in favour of the applicant.

On 14 June 2000 the Zadar County Court (Zupanijski sud u Zadru) dismissed an appeal by the respondent and upheld the first-instance judgment, which thereby became final and enforceable.

On 16 November 2000 the applicant applied to the Pag Municipal Court for enforcement of the above judgment seeking seizure and sale of the debtor’s immovable property in satisfaction of his claim.

On 12 September 2001 the court issued a writ of execution (rješenje o ovrsi).

On 4 October 2006 the applicant withdrew his application for enforcement since A.V. had in the meantime paid the judgment debt. The next day the court issued a decision discontinuing the enforcement proceedings.

2. The proceedings before the Constitutional Court

Meanwhile, on 11 May 2005 the applicant had lodged a constitutional complaint about the overall length of the above civil and enforcement proceedings.

On 4 April 2007 the Constitutional Court (Ustavni sud Republike Hrvatske) declared the part of the applicant’s complaint dealing with the length of the civil proceedings inadmissible, and dismissed the part concerning the length of the enforcement proceedings.

COMPLAINT

The applicant complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the overall length of the civil and enforcement proceedings in the aforementioned case.

THE LAW

By letter of 20 October 2008 the applicant’s representative informed the Court that he accepted a proposal for a friendly settlement and waived any further claims against Croatia in respect of the facts of the present application.

On 31 October 2008 the Government informed the Court that the parties had reached a settlement whereby the Government would pay the applicant 6,000 euros in full and final settlement of the case, costs and expenses included.

The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols (Article 37 § 1 in fine of the Convention). 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.

Søren Nielsen Christos Rozakis
Registrar President