FIRST SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 43523/05 by Bojan GUDELJ against Croatia

The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting on 10 May 2007 as a Chamber composed of:

Mr C.L. Rozakis , President , Mr L. Loucaides , Mrs N. Vajić , Mr K. Hajiyev , Mr D. Spielmann , Mr S.E. Jebens , Mr G. Malinverni , judges , and Mr S. Nielsen , Section Registrar ,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 2 November 2005,

Having regard to the decision to apply Article 29 § 3 of the Convention and examine the admissibility and merits of the case together ,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicant, Mr Bojan Gudelj , is a Croatian national who was born in 1986 and lives in Zagreb . He was represented before the Court by Mr M. Miho čević , a lawyer practising in Zagreb . The Croatian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, M s Š. Stažnik .

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

On 3 March 1986 G.G. instituted civil proceedings with the Zagreb Municipal Court ( Općinski sud u Zagrebu ) against the applicant ’ s father, seeking division of their marital property. Soon afterwards the applicant ’ s father passed away and the applicant took over the proceedings.

After the entry into force of the Convention in respect of Croatia (5 November 1997) the Municipal Court held nine hearings.

Following the applicant ’ s constitutional complaint about the length of the proceedings, on 8 February 2005 the Constitutional Court ( Ustavni sud Republike Hrvatske ) awarded the applicant 7,900 Croatian kunas (HRK) in compensation and ordered the Zagreb Municipal Court to adopt its decision in the shortest time possible but no later than six months from the publication of the decision in the Official Gazette. The decision was published on 18 February 2005 (Official Gazette no. 24/2005).

The Zagreb Municipal Court ’ s judgment of 15 December 2005 was quashed by the Zagreb County Court ( Županijski sud u Zagrebu ) on 4 July 2006. The proceedings are presetly pending before the Zagreb Municipal Court.

COMPLAINTS

1. The applicant complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the length of the proceedings.

2. The applicant also complained under Article 13 about the lack of an effective remedy in respect of his length complaint in that the Constitutional Court ’ s decision had not been complied with .

THE LAW

The Court recalls that n otice of the application was given to the Government on 7 September 2006. T he Government submitted their observations on the admissibil ity and merits of the applicant ’ s complaint on 29 November 2006 . The applicant, who was represented by a lawyer, ha s failed to submit observations in reply. Moreover, he has failed to respond to the communications from the Court, the last of which was a registered letter dated 19 February 2007 warning the applicant of the possibility that his case might be struck out of the Court ’ s list if t he y failed to respond.

Having regard to Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention, the Court concludes that the applicant does not intend to pursue the application. Furthermore, in accordance with Article 37 § 1 in fine , the Court finds no special circumstances regarding respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols which require the further examination of this case. Accordingly, the application of Article 29 § 3 of the Convention to the case should be discontinued and the application struck off the list of cases .

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.

Søren Nielsen Christos Rozakis Registrar President