European Court of Human Rights

FIRST SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 22271/07
by Petar KOVAČEVIĆ
against Croatia

The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting on 5 February 2009 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 24 April 2007,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicant, Mr Petar Kovačević, was a Croatian national who was born in 1910. He died on 19 April 2008. The Croatian Government (“the Government”) are represented by their Agent, Mrs Š. StaZnik.

A.  The circumstances of the case

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

On 31 October 1997 the applicant brought a civil action in the Zagreb Municipal Court (Općinski sud u Zagrebu) against his neighbour, claiming that the latter disturbed the applicant’s possession of his plot of land in that a construction he had build partly occupied the plot owned by the applicant.

The Municipal Court’s judgment of 10 April 2006, dismissing the applicant’s claim, was upheld by the Zagreb County Court (Zupanijski sud u Zagrebu) on 28 November 2006.

On 9 January 2007 the applicant lodged an appeal on points of law. It was declared inadmissible on 2 March 2007 by the Municipal court on the ground that in the proceedings concerning disturbance of possession such an appeal was not allowed. Meanwhile, on 18 September 2003 the applicant filed a constitutional complaint about the length of proceedings.

On 9 November 2006 the Constitutional Court (Ustavni sud Republike Hrvatske) found a violation of the applicant’s right to a trial within reasonable time and awarded him Croatian Kunas (HRK) 6,000 in compensation.

COMPLAINTS

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

He also complained that his property rights had been infringed contrary to Article 1 of Protocol No. 1.

THE LAW

By letter dated 31 December 2008 the Government informed the Court that the applicant had died on 19 April 2008 and enclosed a corresponding death certificate. It shows that the applicant had no close relatives.

In view of the above, the Court considers that it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list of cases, under 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.

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

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

Søren Nielsen Christos Rozakis
Registrar President