Information
Note on the Court’s case-law No.
Goryachev
v. Russia - 34886/06
Decision 9.4.2013 [Section I]
Article 37
Article 37-1-c
Continued examination not justified
Lack
of diligence by the applicant in pursuing his case at domestic level: struck out
Facts - In November 2004 the applicant, who
suffered from schizophrenia, was involuntarily hospitalised as a result of
anxious and aggressive behaviour. Following his discharge about a month later,
he challenged the court order authorising his hospitalisation. That decision
was ultimately quashed on supervisory review and the case was remitted. In the
resumed proceedings, given the repeated absence of the hospital’s
representative, and the lack of any objection by the applicant, the district court
left the hospital’s application for involuntary hospitalisation without
consideration.
Law - Article 37 § 1 (c): The Court had a wide
discretion in identifying grounds capable of being relied on in striking out an
application where its continued examination was no longer justified. It had
previously struck out cases for lack of diligence on the part of an applicant.
In the instant case, all the applicant had needed to do was to object to the
district court’s decision to leave the case without consideration. He would not
have had to provide any further reasons. However, by failing to insist on
consideration of the merits, even though he was represented by counsel, the
applicant had effectively consented to the termination of the proceedings
without a final judicial decision reviewing the lawfulness of his
hospitalisation. He had thus freely chosen not to pursue his complaints through
a reasonable avenue on the domestic level and thereby prevented a review of his
hospitalisation and the adoption of a final domestic decision in his case.
Given his lack of diligence, it was no longer justified to continue the
examination of the application.
Couclusion: struck out (unanimously).