European Court of Human Rights

FOURTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 70370/01
by Jan PRZEWDZIĘKOWSKI
against Poland

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 9 December 2008 as a Chamber composed of:

Nicolas Bratza, President,
Lech Garlicki,
Giovanni Bonello,
Ljiljana Mijović,
Päivi Hirvelä,
Ledi Bianku,
Nebojša Vučinić, judges,
and Lawrence Early, Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 2 March 2000,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicant, Mr Jan Przewdziękowski, is a Polish national who was born in 1936, died in 2008 and lived in Kraków. The Polish Government (“the Government”) are represented by their Agent, Mr J.Wołąsiewicz of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A.  The circumstances of the case

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

In December 1998 a part of the applicant’s land was taken over by the Cracow Municipality (Urząd Miasta Krakowa) for the purpose of road construction. On 1 June 1999 the applicant sent a letter to the municipality asking to be paid compensation.

In reply, on 9 July 1999 the Cracow Municipality Department of City Treasury (Urząd Miasta Krakowa, Wydział Skarbu Miasta) informed the applicant that on 29 October 1998 a new law on local administration entered into force. Pursuant to Section 73 of that law, property which had been taken over for the purpose of road construction had become the property of the State Treasury or the municipalities as of 1 January 1999. The municipality further stated that the payment of compensation was not an administrative matter, and could be only done upon an expropriation decision given by the Governor. In the present case such a decision had not yet been given.

On 21 July 2000 the Cracow Vice President informed the applicant that the time-limit indicated in the 1998 Act applied only to the period when the applications for compensation should be lodged. However, there were no relevant provisions concerning as regards when the compensation could be paid.

On 13 February 2004 the applicant requested the Cracow President to pay him the compensation for the land in question.

On 3 January 2006 the President of Cracow stayed the proceedings concerning compensation until the Governor had issued a decision stating that the State Treasury or the municipality had acquired the ownership of the land. The applicant failed to appeal against this decision. However, one of the co-owners did. This decision was subsequently quashed by the Małopolski Governor on 16 February 2006.

B.  Facts after communication.

On 2 September 2008 the Registry requested the parties to submit additional observations on the merits of the case. On 15 September 2008 the letter to the applicant was returned with a note “addressee had died”.

The Government were informed of that fact. On 20 October 2008 they produced the applicant’s death certificate, stating that he had died on 31 July 2008.

COMPLAINT

The applicant complained under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 that he had been deprived of his possessions without any compensation.

THE LAW

The Court takes note of the fact that the applicant had died on 31 July 2008 and that no request has been submitted by the applicant’s heirs to pursue the examination of the case.

The Court considers that, in these circumstances, it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the application within the meaning of Article 37 § 1 (c) 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. 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.

Lawrence Early Nicolas Bratza
Registrar President