FOURTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 30516/03 Mircea POPA against Romania and 3 other applications (see appended table)

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 29 June 2017 as a Committee composed of:

Vincent A. De Gaetano, President, Georges Ravarani, Marko Bošnjak , judges, and Liv Tigerstedt, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above applications lodged on the various dates indicated in the appended table,

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

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

The list of applicants and the relevant details of the application s are set out in the appended table.

The applicants ’ complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and Article 1 of the Protocol No. 1 concerning the non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of domestic decisions were communicated to the Romanian Government (“the Government”) . In application no. 15870/07, the applicant also complained of the exces sive length of the proceedings, under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.

THE LAW

A. Joinder of the applications

Having regard to the similar subject matter of the applications, the Court finds it appropriate to examine them jointly in a single decision.

B. Complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and Article 1 of the Protocol No. 1 ( non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of domestic decisions )

In the present application s, the Court finds that it does not need to rule on the preliminary objections raised by the Government, because the complaints are inadmissible in any event, as presented below.

Having examined all the material before it, t he Court considers that the respondent Government cannot be held liable for the non-enforcement or the delayed enforcement of the outstanding judgments given in the applicants ’ favour. In particular, the Court notes that the applicants failed to make appropriate use of the available domestic legal avenues and to comply with all the procedural and substantial requirements of the domestic law: subscription on the creditors ’ ranking table in insolvency proceedings (application no. 30516/03), showing constant diligence in pursuing the enforcement proceedings (“ st ăruire în executare ”, application no. 3703/04), instituting enforcement proceedings (application no. 25089/06), statute of limitations (application no. 15870/07) (see for instance Ciprova v. the Czech Republic ( dec. ), no. 33273/03, 22 March 2005).

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.

C. Complaint under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention (length of the civil proceedings)

In application no. 15870/07, the applicant also complain ed of a breach of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, arguing that the length of the civil proceeding s finalis ed by the decision of 7 March 1995 of the Cluj District Court, was excessive and failed to meet the “reasonable time” requirement.

The Court observes that the period under consideration start ed on 7 June 1994 and ended on 7 March 1995, amount ing to a total of 8 months and 29 days. The application was lodged with the Court on 19 March 2007.

It follows that this part of the application no. 15870/07 is inadmissible for non ‑ compliance with the six-month rule set out in Article 35 § 1 of the Convention, and must be rejected pursuant to Article 35 § 4 of the Convention.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Decides to join the applications;

Declares the application s inadmissible.

Done in English and notified in writing on 20 July 2017 .

Liv Tigerstedt Vincent A. De Gaetano Acting Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

Applications raising complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and Article 1 of the Protocol No. 1 (non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of domestic decisions)

No.

Application no.

Date of introduction

Applicant name

Date of birth

Relevant domestic decision

Start date of non-enforcement period

End date of non-enforcement period Length of enforcement proceedings

30516/03

13/08/2003

Mircea Popa

30/03/1954

Râmnicu Vâlcea District Court, 02/07/1998

Râmnicu Vâlcea District Court, 06/03/2003

02/07/1998

06/03/2003

pending

More than 18 years and 10 months and 15 days

pending

More than 14 years and 2 months and 11 days

3703/04

08/12/2003

Elena Stratan

06/07/1937

Iași County Court

(domestic case-file no. 900/1996), 08/04/1996

09/09/1996

22/07/2010

13 years and 10 months and 14 days

25089/06

05/06/2006

Ana Marc

15/02/1941

MaramureÈ™ County Court

(domestic case-file no. 2426/2005), 08/06/2005

08/06/2005

14/11/2005

5 months and 7 days

15870/07

19/03/2007

Lucian- Vasile CriÅŸan-Lupa

04/06/1964

Cluj District Court, 07/03/1995

07/03/1995

pending

More than 22 years and 2 months and 10 days