FIRST SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 32339/02 by Nikolay Aleksandrovich MEDVEDEV against Russia

The European Court of Human Rights ( First Section), sitting on 29 April 2008 as a Chamber composed of:

Christos Rozakis , President, Anatoly Kovler , Elisabeth Steiner , Dean Spielmann , Sverre Erik Jebens , Giorgio Malinverni , George Nicolaou , judges, and André Wampach , Deputy Section Registrar , Having regard to the above application lodged on 20 July 2002,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicant, Mr Nikolay Aleksandrovich Medvedev , was a Russian n a tional who was born in 1949 and live d in the Altay Region . The Russian Go v ernment were initially represented by Mr P. Laptev, the former Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights, and later by their new Representative, Mrs V. Milinchuk .

The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as fo l lows.

On 27 October 1998 and 29 September 2000 the Zmeinogorodskiy District Court of the Altay Region held for the applicant in two sets of civil procee d ings against a private person and the State respectively.

COMPLAINT S

1. The applicant complained about the length and the outcome of the pr o ceedings, and about corruption and incompetence of law officials .

2. The applicant also alleged that the State failed to enforce the judgments in time.

THE LAW

On 6 April 2005 the Court gave notice of the application to the Government. The Government informed the Court that on 19 May 2004 the applicant had died. They asked the Court to strike the application out of its list of cases.

On 12 September 2005 the Court wrote to the applicant ’ s last known a d dress in case the applicant ’ s eventual heirs wished to step in the proceedings. No reply followed.

This being so, it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the a p plication within the meaning of Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention. Furthe r more, in accordance with Article 37 § 1 in fi ne , the Court finds no special ci r cumstances regarding respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols which require the continued examination of the case. In view of the above, it is appropriate to discontinue the application of Article 29 § 3 and 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.

André Wampach Christos Rozakis              Deputy Registrar President