European Court of Human Rights

THIRD SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 13182/03
Mircea Alexandru NEMEŞ and Adrian NEMEŞ
against Romania

The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 10 January 2012 as a Committee composed of:

Ján Šikuta, President,
Ineta Ziemele,
Kristina Pardalos, judges,
and Marialena Tsirli, Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 3 March 2003,

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

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

PROCEDURE

The applicants, Mr Mircea Alexandru Nemeş and Mr Adrian Nemeş are Romanian nationals who were born in 1968 and 1969 respectively and live in Oradea. Their application was lodged on 3 March 2003. The Romanian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms Irina Cambrea, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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

On 21 March 1996 the applicants lodged a civil action against a third party for the determination of ownership rights, namely a request for annulment of the third party’s title deed and subsequent registration in the land book register. By a final decision of 27 March 2008, the Oradea Court of Appeal allowed the applicants’ claims in respect of the ownership rights over the disputed parcel of land. The length of the domestic proceedings was of twelve years for three levels of jurisdiction.

COMPLAINTS

Invoking Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, the applicants complained of the length and the unfairness of the proceedings. They also complained under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention regarding their alleged property rights.

THE LAW

On 9 June 2011 the Court received the following declaration from the Government:

“I, Agent of the Government of Romania before the European Court of Human Rights, declare that the Government of Romania offer to pay, ex gratia, jointly to Mr Mircea Alexandru Nemeş and Mr Adrian Nemeş, with a view to securing a friendly settlement of the above-mentioned case pending before the European Court of Human Rights, EUR 4,800 (four thousand eight hundred euros), plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicants.

These sums will be converted into the national currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable on the date of payment, and will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision 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. The payment will constitute the final resolution of the case.”

On 14 February 2011 the Court received the following declaration signed by the applicants:

“We, Mircea Alexandru Nemeş and Adrian Nemeş, note that the Government of Romania are prepared to pay ex gratia jointly to us, with a view to securing a friendly settlement of the above-mentioned case pending before the European Court of Human Rights, EUR 4,800 (four thousand eight hundred euros), plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicants.

These sums will be converted into the national currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable on the date of payment, and will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision by the Court pursuant to Article 37 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. From the expiry of the above-mentioned three months until settlement simple interest shall be payable on the above amounts at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points.

We accept the proposal and waive any further claims against Romania in respect of the facts giving rise to this application. We declare that this constitutes a final resolution of the case.”

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 and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the application (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.

Marialena Tsirli Ján Šikuta
Deputy Registrar President