THIRD SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 38090/03 by Åž tefan GORANDA against Romania

The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 2 5 May 2010 as a Chamber composed of:

Josep Casadevall , President, Elisabet Fura , Corneliu Bîrsan , Boštjan M. Zupančič , Ineta Ziemele , Luis López Guerra , Ann Power , judges, and Santiago Quesada, Section Registrar ,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 21 October 2003,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

PROCEDURE

The application was lodged by Mr Ş tefan Goranda , a Romanian national who was born in 1929 and live d in Bac ă u . Before he died, on 16 August 2009, he was represented before the Court by Mr H aim Ianai , a lawyer practising in Herzelia , Israel . The Romanian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr Răzvan- Horaţiu Radu , from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs .

The applicant ' s complaints under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 t o the C onvention , concerning the alleged impossibility to obtain compensation for nationalised property although this right is provided by Law no. 10/2001, due to the lack of effectiveness of the compensatory mechanism of the mentioned law , were communicated to the Government, who submitted their observations on the admissibility and merits. The observations were forwarded to the applican t, who was invited to submit his own observations.

On 31 August 2009, the applicant ' s representative informed the Court that the applicant had died on 16 August 2009, but he did not indicate if he left any heir which could express the will to pursue the application before the Court. By letter of 21 September 2009, the Court ' s Registry asked the applicant representative to inform the Court if there was any heir expressing the will to continue the application. No answer has been received by the Court .

By letter dated 14 December 2009 , sent by registered post, the applicant ' s representative was notified that the period allowed for submission of the observations and of the information if there was any heir expressing the will to take over and continue the application had expired on 11 December 2009 and that no extension of time had been requested. The applicant ' s representative ' s attention was drawn to Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention, which provides that the Court may strike a case out of its list of cases where the circumstances lead to the conclusion that the applicant does not intend to pursue the application. No answer has been received by the Court .

THE LAW

The Court considers that, in the absence of any heir expressing the will to take over and continue this application, there are no special circumstances in the case affecting respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and requiring the further examination of the application under 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.

Santiago Quesada Josep Casedevall Registrar President