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Cite as: [2010] ECHR 2191

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FIFTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 33702/04
by Valeriy Petrovich VEKKER and 5 other applications
against Ukraine
(see annex for other applications)

The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting on 14 December 2010 as a Committee composed of:

Rait Maruste, President,
Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska,
Zdravka Kalaydjieva, judges,
and Stephen Phillips, Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above applications lodged on the dates specified in the table annexed below,

Having regard to the decision to apply the pilot-judgment procedure taken in the case of Yuriy Nikolayevich Ivanov v. Ukraine (no. 40450/04, ECHR 2009 ... (extracts)),

Having regard to the unilateral declaration submitted by the respondent Government on 2 August 2010 requesting the Court to strike the applications out of the list of cases, the applicants' replies to it and the Government's letter of 9 December 2010 amending the aforesaid declaration,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicants are Ukrainian nationals whose names and dates of birth are set out in the table annexed below. The Ukrainian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr Y. Zaytsev.

On the dates set out in the table annexed below the domestic courts held for the applicants and ordered the authorities to take certain measures or to pay various amounts to the applicants. These judgments became binding but the authorities delayed their enforcement.

COMPLAINTS

The applicants complained about the delayed enforcement of the judgments in their favour and, in certain cases, of assorted faults that allegedly accompanied the judicial or enforcement proceedings. Some of the applicants also raised other complaints.

THE LAW

The Court first considers that in accordance with Rule 42 § 1 of the Rules of Court, the applications should be joined, given their common legal background.

A. Complaints concerning lengthy non-enforcement of the judgments in the applicants' favour

Following the Yuriy Nikolayevich Ivanov v. Ukraine pilot judgment cited above, in a letter dated 2 August 2010, the Government informed the Court of their unilateral declaration, signed on 30 July 2010, with a view to resolving the issue raised by the applications. They further requested the Court to strike out the applications in accordance with Article 37 of the Convention.

The declaration provided as follows:

“The Government of Ukraine acknowledge the excessive duration of the enforcement of the applicants' judgments, included in the annex to this declaration.

The Government are ready to pay to the applicants the outstanding debts according to the judgements of the national authorities, as well as to pay the applicants ex gratia the sums in accordance with the annex to this declaration.

The Government therefore invite the Court to strike the applications out of the list of cases. They suggest that the present declaration might be accepted by the Court as “any other reason” justifying the striking out of the case of the Court's list of cases, as referred to in Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention.

The sums ex gratia are to cover any pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage as well as costs and expenses and will be free of any taxes that may be applicable. They will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court pursuant to Article 37 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In the event of failure to pay these sums within the said three-month period, the Government undertake to pay simple interest on them from expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points.

This payment will constitute the final resolution of the cases.”

In reply, the applicants expressed their agreement with the terms of the Government's declaration. Some of them noted, however, that they had raised other complaints not covered by the Government's declaration.

On 9 December 2010 the Government sent a letter expressing their intent to amend the above declaration and to include the provision that the ex gratia sums “be converted into the national currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable at the date of settlement” in order to be able to effect the payment.

The Court reiterates that Article 37 of the Convention provides that it may at any stage of the proceedings decide to strike an application out of its list of cases where the circumstances lead to one of the conclusions specified, under (a), (b) or (c) of paragraph 1 of that Article. Article 37 § 1 (b) and (c) enable the Court in particular to strike a case out of its list if:

“the matter has been resolved”

or

“for any other reason established by the Court, it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the application”.

Article 37 § 1 in fine states:

“However, the Court shall continue the examination of the application if respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and the protocols thereto so requires.”

The Court further reiterates that in its pilot judgment (Yuriy Nikolayevich Ivanov v. Ukraine, cited above) it required Ukraine to

“grant adequate and sufficient redress, within one year from the date on which the present judgment [became] final, to all applicants [...] whose complaints about the prolonged non-enforcement of domestic decisions [had] been communicated to the respondent Government.”

In the same judgment the Court also held that

“Proceedings in cases which [had] already been communicated to the Government under Rule 54 § 2 (b) of the Rules of Court, but in which the Court [had] not yet decided on the merits, [would] be adjourned for [one year from the date on which this judgment became final]. ...

The decision to adjourn the above cases [would] be taken without prejudice to the Court's power at any moment to declare inadmissible any such case or to strike it out of its list following a friendly settlement between the parties or the resolution of the matter by other means in accordance with Articles 37 or 39 of the Convention.”

The Court takes note of the settlement between the parties. This, in its view, is in line with the pilot judgment (ibid., § 99 and point 6 of the operative part) and it finds no public policy reasons to justify a continued examination of this part of the applications.

Accordingly, this part of the applications should be struck out of the list.

B. Remainder of the complaints

Having carefully examined the remainder of the applicants' complaints in the light of all the material in its possession, and in so far as the matter complained of is within its competence, the Court finds that it does not disclose any appearance of a violation of the rights and freedoms set out in the Convention or its Protocols.

It follows that this part of the applications is manifestly ill-founded and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 3 and 4 of the Convention.

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

Decides to join the applications;

Takes note of the terms of the respondent Government's declaration in respect of the lengthy non-enforcement of the judgments in the applicants' favour, the applicants' acceptance thereof and the amendment to the aforesaid declaration;

Decides to strike the applications out of its list of cases in so far as they relate to the above complaint in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (b) and (c) of the Convention;

Declares the remainder of the applications inadmissible.

Stephen Phillips Rait Maruste
Deputy Registrar President

ANNEX

#	Appl. number	Name(s) of the applicant(s), born in	Date of introduction	Domestic decisions about the lengthy non-enforcement of which the applicants complain (date of the decision, name of the court)	Compensation offered (euro)
	33702/04	VEKKER VALERIY PETROVICH (1963)	8 September 2004	26 February 2003, Ordzhonikidze District Court of Kharkiv	465
	45785/05	PETRAKIVSKA STANISLAVA TSEZARIVNA (1946) DUBYK ALLA LEONIDIVNA (1981) POKRYVKO OLEKSANDR LEONIDOVYCH (1971)	28 November 2005	23 June 2004, Korolyovskyy District Court of Zhytomyr	405 per applicant
	1036/06	TYUKOVA KATERYNA IVANIVNA (1944)	6 December 2005	10 November 2003, Kirovskyy District Court of Donetsk 11 June 2007, Kirovskyy District Court of Donetsk	735
	8867/06	LAPIN ALEKSANDR ALEKSANDROVICH (1955)	14 February 2006	22 September 2003, Shevchenkivskyy District Court of Kyiv	720
	24396/07	SAGATA OLGA DANYLIVNA (1954)	25 May 2007	8 October 2004, Zaliznychnyy District Court of Lviv	795
	56409/08	ABRAMOV PETRO STANYSLAVOVYCH (1968)	4 November 2008	7 March 2007, Pechersky District Court of Kyiv	405 per applicant
		AKOPYAN VIRA IVANIVNA (1958)
		ANTONOV VOLODYMYR MYKOLAYOVYCH (1948)
		BATRAK VOLODYMYR VASYLOVYCH (1944)
		BONDAREVSKA SVITLANA MYKHAYLIVNA (1964)
		BULENKO OLEKSANDR OLEKSIYOVYCH (1957)
		BURDA KATERYNA IVANIVNA (1955)
		CHERNOV SERGIY IVANOVYCH (1952)
		CHICHIL VOLODYMYR ANATOLIYOVYCH (1962)
		DAVYDENKO EDUARD VOLODYMYROVYCH (1966)
		DENYSENKO LILIYA MYKOLAYIVNA (1963)
		DOROSH ALLA IVANIVNA (1965)
		DOVGAL SVITLANA ANATOLIYIVNA (1951)
		DRYANYTSYA YURIY VOLODYMYROVYCH (1965)
		GALYONKIN SERGIY ANATOLIYOVYCH (1961)
		GASIY YURIY VOLODYMYROVYCH (1961)
		GAVRYSH VIKTOR MYKHAYLOVYCH (1950)
		GLADIY STEPAN VASYLOVYCH (1964)
		GOLUBENKO NATALIYA VOLODYMYRIVNA (1959)
		KARNAUKH PETRO MYKOLAYOVYCH (1964)
		KASMININ OLEKSANDR VOLODYMYROVYCH (1966)
		KHRYPCHENKO LARYSA GRYGORIVNA (1947)
		KOPYTKO LARYSA IVANIVNA (1954)
		KORNIYENKO VADYM IVANOVYCH (1967)
		KOZHEVNIKOV OLEKSANDR VOLODYMYROVYCH (1952)
		KULISH VIKTOR MYKOLAYOVYCH (1953)
		KYSIL ANATOLIY MYKOLAYOVYCH (1957)
		LANDAR OLEKSIY VASYLOVYCH (1958)
		LISICHENKO LARYSA MYKOLAYIVNA (1960)
		LOBOV OLEKSANDR ANATOLIYOVYCH (1967)
		MAKARCHUK MYKHAYLO ANDRIYOVYCH (1960)
		MARTYEV SERGIY YURIYOVYCH (1960)
		MILASH SERGIY PAVLOVYCH (1950)
		NOVOKHATNYA VALENTYNA ANDRIYIVNA (1951)
		OBIDINA OLENA IVANIVNA (1966)
		OMELCHENKO LYUDMYLA MYKOLAYIVNA (1966)
		ONISHCHENKO VITALIY ILARYONOVYCH (1945)
		ORLOVA NATALIYA FEDORIVNA (1955)
		PAVLENKO VOLODYMYR PAVLOVYCH (1946)
		PETRENKO VASYL MYKOLAYOVYCH (1950)
		PRYADKINA OLGA VALENTYNIVNA (1960)
		SHABOVSKA VALENTYNA ANATOLIYIVNA (1958)
		SLYEPUKHA OLEKSANDR YEVGENIYOVYCH (1951)
		TARANENKO YURIY PETROVYCH (1951)
		TOMILKO VALENTYN PETROVYCH (1961)
		TRYGOLOV VADYM MYKOLAYOVYCH (1966)
		TYAGNYRYADNO MYKHAYLO GRYGOROVYCH (1940)
		TYMCHUK LYUDMYLA ANATOLIYIVNA (1946)
		VISHCHYK VALERIY MYKOLAYOVYCH (1943)
		YURENKO LYUDMYLA ANTONIVNA (1949)