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Cite as: [2010] ECHR 1763

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THIRD SECTION

DECISION

AS TO THE ADMISSIBILITY OF

Application no. 40739/05
by Stanislava REPAR
against Slovenia

The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 12 October 2010 as a Committee composed of:

Elisabet Fura, President,
Boštjan M. Zupančič,
Ineta Ziemele, judges,
and Santiago Quesada, Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 3 November 2005,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

1. The applicant, Ms Stanislava Repar, is a Slovenian national who was born in 1953 and lives in Celje. She was represented before the Court by Ms M. Končan Verstovšek, a lawyer practising in Celje. The Slovenian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr Lucijan Bembič, State Attorney-General.

A. The circumstances of the case

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

3. On 5 March 2002 the applicant instituted civil proceedings with the Celje District Court (OkroZno sodišče v Celju) seeking compensation for damage.

4. On 4 November 2002 the applicant lodged preliminary written submissions.

5. On 13 February 2003 the first hearing was held.

6. Between 13 February 2003 and 25 April 2003 the applicant lodged four preliminary written submissions and/or adduced evidence.

Between 13 May 2003 and 4 September 2003 two hearings were held.

7. On 4 September 2003 the Celje District Court gave an interim judgment regarding the proportion of liability of the parties. The question of the amount of compensation was reserved for the final decision. Both parties appealed.

8. On 16 February 2005 the Celje Higher Court (Višje sodišče v Celju) gave a judgment upholding both appeals and remitting the case for re-examination.

9. On 12 October 2005 the first-instance court held a hearing.

10. On 20 January 2006 the applicant withdrew her claim due to an out-of court settlement reached between the parties.

B. Relevant domestic law

11. The Act on the Protection of the Right to a Trial without Undue Delay (Zakon o varstvu pravice do sojenja brez nepotrebnega odlašanja, Official Gazette, No. 49/2006 – “the 2006 Act”) became operational on 1 January 2007.

12. Section 25 lays down the following transitional rules in relation to the applications already pending before the Court:

Section 25 - Just satisfaction for damage sustained prior to implementation of this Act

“(1) In cases where a violation of the right to a trial without undue delay has already ceased and the party had filed a claim for just satisfaction with the international court before the date of implementation of this Act, the State Attorney’s Office shall offer the party a settlement on the amount of just satisfaction within four months after the date of receipt of the case referred by the international court for the settlement procedure. The party shall submit a settlement proposal to the State Attorney’s Office within two months of the date of receipt of the proposal of the State Attorney’s Office. The State Attorney’s Office shall decide on the proposal as soon as possible and within a period of four months at the latest.....

(2) If the proposal for settlement referred to in paragraph 1 of this section is not acceded to or the State Attorney’s Office and the party fail to negotiate an agreement within four months after the date on which the party filed its proposal, the party may bring an action before the competent court under this Act. The party may bring an action within six months after receiving the State Attorney’s Office reply that the party’s proposal referred to in the previous paragraph was not acceded to, or after the expiry of the period fixed in the previous paragraph for the State Attorney’s Office to decide to proceed with settlement. Irrespective of the type or amount of the claim, the provisions of the Civil Procedure Act concerning small claims shall apply in proceedings before a court.”

COMPLAINTS

13. The applicant complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the excessive length of civil proceedings and under Article 13 of the Convention about the lack of an effective domestic remedy in that regard.

THE LAW

ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLES 6 § 1 AND 13 OF THE CONVENTION

14. The applicant complained that the length of the proceedings had been excessive. She relied on Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, which reads as follows:

“In the determination of his civil rights and obligations ..., everyone is entitled to a ... hearing within a reasonable time by [a] ... tribunal...”

15. The applicant also complained of the lack of an effective domestic remedy in respect of the excessive length of the proceedings. Article 13 reads as follows:

“Everyone whose rights and freedoms as set forth in [the] Convention are violated shall have an effective remedy before a national authority notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity.”

16. Further to the notification of the case under Rule 54 § 2 (a) of the Rules of Court, the Government informed the Court that the State Attorney’s Office had refused to apply section 25 to the present case, stating that the applicant’s right to a trial within a reasonable time had not been infringed. As a result, no settlement proposal was submitted to the applicant. The applicant was requested to submit comments, which she never did.

17. The Court recalls that the “reasonable” length of proceedings must be assessed in accordance with the circumstances of the case and the following criteria: the complexity of the case, the behaviour of the applicant and that of the competent authorities and what was at stake for the applicant in the dispute (see, among many other authorities, Frydlender v. France [GC], no. 30979/96, § 43, ECHR 2000-VII). The Court reiterates that only delays attributable to the State may justify a finding of non-compliance with the “reasonable time” requirement (see Humen v. Poland, no. 26614/95, § 66, judgment of 15 October 1999).

18. The Court observes that the time to be taken in consideration in the present case started on 5 March 2002, the date when the domestic proceedings were instituted, and ended on 20 January 2006, the date when the applicant withdrew her claim following an out-of-court settlement. The proceedings therefore lasted three years and ten months for two levels of jurisdiction and two instances.

In the Court’s view the proceedings, which concerned a request for compensation of damage, were not particularly complex. Furthermore, the applicant’s conduct does not appear to have substantially contributed to the duration of the proceedings. As to the conduct of the competent authorities, the Court observes that despite the fact that it took the first-instance court eleven months to hold the first hearing the proceedings subsequently continued without unnecessary delays.

19. Having regard to all the material submitted to it and having regard to the Court’s case-law on the subject (see for example Takeva v. Bulgaria, no. 56023/00, 4 September 2006, Hornak v. Slovakia, no. 43527/04, 24 November 2009 and Koszegi v. Hungary, no. 73298/01, 25 March 2003) the Court considers that in the instant case the length of the proceedings can still be considered reasonable.

20. The Court therefore finds that this part of the application is manifestly ill-founded and must be rejected under Article 35 § 4 of the Convention.

21. As to the complaint regarding the lack of effective remedies the Court recalls that Article 13 requires the State to provide an effective legal remedy to deal with the substance of an “arguable complaint” under the Convention and to grant appropriate relief (see Sürmeli v. Germany [GC], no. 75529/01, § 98, 8 June 2006). Considering that the complaint about the excessive length of the proceedings is inadmissible as manifestly ill-founded, the Court finds that the applicant did not have an arguable claim that his right to an effective remedy within the meaning of Article 13 was violated. Therefore, this claim does not reveal any appearance of violation of this provision.

22. Accordingly, this complaint is manifestly ill-founded and must be declared inadmissible in the meaning of Article 35 §§ 3 and 4 of the Convention.

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

Declares the application inadmissible.

Santiago Quesada Elisabet Fura
Registrar President