FOURTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 1701/17 József SZOKOL against Hungary

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 14 February 2019 as a Committee composed of:

Georges Ravarani , President, Marko Bošnjak , Péter Paczolay , judges,

and Liv Tigerstedt, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 28 April 2017 ,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicant,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

The applicant ’ s details are set out in the appended table.

The applicant ’ s complaints under Articles 6 § 1 and 13 of the Convention concerning the excessive length of civil proceedings and the lack of an effective remedy in this regard were communicated to the Hungarian Government (“the Government”) .

THE LAW

Complaints under Articles 6 § 1 and 13 of the Convention ( excessive length of civil proceedings and the lack of an effective remedy )

In the present application, having examined all the material before it, the Court considers that for the reasons stated below, the respondent Government cannot be held liable for the protraction of the case.

In particular, the Court notes that the proceedings lasted just under five and a half years for three levels of jurisdiction which cannot be considered excessive.

Moreover, since the applicant ’ s complaint above under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention is manifestly ill-founded, no issue arises in relation to his complaint under Article 13.

In view of the above, the Court finds that these complaints are manifestly ill-founded and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 3 and 4 of the Convention.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Declares the application inadmissible.

Done in English and notified in writing on 7 March 2019 .

Liv Tigerstedt Georges Ravarani Acting Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

Application raising complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention

( excessive length of civil proceedings)

Application no.

Date of introduction

Applicant ’ s name

Date of birth

Start of proceedings

End of proceedings

Total length

Levels of jurisdiction

Other complaints under well-established case-law

1701/17

28/04/2017

József Szokol

26/11/1943

27/06/2011

08/11/2016

5 year(s) and 4 month(s) and 13 day(s) 3 level(s) of jurisdiction

Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in domestic law in respect of excessive length of civil proceedings -