FIFTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 60331/13 Richard LECHNER and Sabine LECHNER against Austria

The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting on 2 3 January 2018 as a Committee composed of:

Yonko Grozev, President, Gabriele Kucsko-Stadlmayer, Lado Chanturia, judges,

and Anne-Marie Dougin, Acting Deputy Section Registrar ,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 9 September 2013,

Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the case,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

The applicants, Mr Richard Lechner and Ms Sabine Lechner, are Austrian nationals, who were born in 1968 and 1972 respectively and live in Vienna. They were represented before the Court by Mr A.O. Rippel, a lawyer practising in Vienna.

The Austrian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr H. Tichy, Head of the International Department at the Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and International Affairs.

The applicants complained under Article 6 of the Convention about the length of the proceedings for contact rights regarding their children. They also invoked Art 8 of the Convention.

On 20 November and 7 December 2017 the Court received friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties under which the applicants agreed to waive any further claims against Austria in respect of the facts giving rise to this application against an undertaking by the Government to pay them 9,000 euros to cover any and all damage as well as costs and expenses, plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicants and payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court. In the event of failure to pay this sum within the said three-month period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on it, from the expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points. The payment will constitute the final resolution of the case.

THE LAW

The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the application. 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 in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention.

Done in English and notified in writing on 15 February 2018 .

             Anne-Marie Dougin Yonko Grozev Acting Deputy Registrar President