Search
document

BOGATIROV AND OTHERS v. SERBIA

Doc ref: 61608/10, 61836/10, 61870/10, 61938/10, 61970/10, 61973/10, 62588/10, 62590/10, 62645/10, 62664/10, ... • ECHR ID: 001-146892

Document date: September 2, 2014

Inbound citations: 0
•
Cited paragraphs: 0
•
Outbound citations: 4

BOGATIROV AND OTHERS v. SERBIA

Doc ref: 61608/10, 61836/10, 61870/10, 61938/10, 61970/10, 61973/10, 62588/10, 62590/10, 62645/10, 62664/10, ... • ECHR ID: 001-146892

Document date: September 2, 2014

Cited paragraphs only

THIRD SECTION

DECISION

Application no . 61608/10 Tomislav BOGATIROV against Serbia and 19 other applications (see list appended)

The European Court of Human Rights ( Third Section ), sitting on 2 September 2014 as a Committee composed of:

Ján Šikuta , President, Dragoljub Popović , Iulia Antoanella Motoc , judges,

and Marialena Tsirli , Deputy Section Registrar ,

Having regard to the above applications lodged on 29 September 2010 ,

Having regard to the declaration s submitted by the respondent Government on 14 March 2014 requesting the Court to strike the applications out of the list of cases and the applicants ’ reply to th ese declaratio ns ,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

A list of the applicants is set out in the appendix. They we re all represented by Mr M. Marjanović and Ms M. Dedović-Marjanović, lawyers practising in Leskovac.

The Serbian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent M s V . Rod ić.

All applicants are former employees of “LETEKS” u stečaju (the debtor) , which was, at the relevant time, a socially-owned company. All of the applicants obtained final court decision ( P1. 1414/06, P1.670/0 7 , P1 . 2813/07, P1 . 2814/07, P1 . 3305 /07 of 18 April 2008 ) ordering the debtor to pay them certain sums.

Relying on Article 6 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention the applicants complain ed about the failure by the national authorities to enforce final court decision s rendered in their favour.

The applications had been communicated to the Government .

THE LAW

The Court considers that, in accordance with Rule 42 § 1 of the Rules of Court, the applications should be joined, given their similar factual and legal background.

After the failure of attempts to reach a friendly settlement, by a letter of 14 March 2014 the Government informed the Court that they proposed to make unilateral declaration s with a view to resolving the issue raised by the applications. They further requested the Court to strike out the applications in accordance with Article 37 of the Convention.

The declaration in respect to each application provided as follows:

“ ... the Government of the Republic of Serbia is ready to acknowledge that there had been a violation of the applicant ’ s right under Article 6 (1) of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and offer to pay to the applicant, [the applicant ’ s name] , the amount of EUR 1,800 ...

This sum, which is to cover any non-pecuniary damage as well as the costs and expenses, will be converted into RSD at the rate applicable on the date of payment, free of any taxes that may be applicable. It will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court to strike the case out of its list of cases.

.. further ... the Government offer to pay to the applicant, from their own funds, the sums awarded in the domestic decision (P1. 1414/06, P1.670/07, P1. 2813/07, P1. 2814/07, P1. 3305/07 of 18 April 2008) ... less any amounts which may have already been paid on the basis of the said decision, plus the costs of the domestic enforcement proceedings.

The amounts at the issue will be paid directly to the account of the applicant. These payments will constitute the final resolution of the case pending before the European Court of Human Rights.

The Government regret the occurrence of the actions which have led to the bringing of the present application. ”

By a letter of 29 April 2014 , the applicants indicated that they were not satisfied with the terms of the unilateral declaration s.

The Court recalls that Article 37 of the Convention provides that it may at any stage of the proceedings decide to strike an application out of its list of cases where the circumstances lead to one of the conclusions specified, under (a), (b) or (c) of paragraph 1 of that Article. Article 37 § 1 (c) enables the Court in particular to strike a case out of its list if:

“for any other reason established by the Court, it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the applications”.

It also recalls that in certain circumstances, it may strike out an applications under Article 37 § 1(c) on the basis of a unilateral declaration by a respondent Government even if the applicants wish the examination of the cases to be continued.

To this end, the Court will examine carefully the Government ’ s declaration s in the light of the principles emerging from its case-law, in particular the Tahsin Acar judgment ( Tahsin Acar v. Turkey , [GC], no. 26307/95, §§ 75-77, ECHR 2003-VI); WAZA Spółka z o.o. v. Poland (dec.) no. 11602/02, 26 June 2007; and Sulwińska v. Poland (dec.) no. 28953/03).

The Court has established in a number of cases, including those brought against Serbia, its practice concerning complaints about the non ‑ enforcement of final domestic decision rendered against socially/State ‑ owned companies (see, for example, R. Kačapor and Others v. Serbia , nos. 2269/06, 3041/06, 3042/06, 3043/06, 3045/06 and 3046/06, 15 January 2008; CrniÅ¡anin and Others v. Serbia , nos. 35835/05, 43548/05, 43569/05 and 36986/06, 13 January 2009 ; RaÅ¡ković and Milunović v. Serbia , nos. 1789/07 and 28058/07, 31 May 2011; Milunović and ÄŒekrlić v. Serbia (dec.), nos. 3716/09 and 38051/09, 17 May 2011; and StoÅ¡ić v. Serbia , no. 64931/1, 1 October 2013).

Having regard to the nature of the admissions contained in the Government ’ s declaration s , as well as the amount of compensation proposed, the Court considers that it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the applications (Article 37 § 1(c)).

Moreover, in light of the above considerations, and in particular given the clear and extensive case-law on the topic, the Court is satisfied that respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and the Protocols thereto does not require it to continue the examination of the application s (Article 37 § 1 in fine ).

Further, the Court interprets the Government ’ s declaration s as meaning that in the event of failure to settle within the three-month perio d indicated in those declaration s , simple interest shall be payable on the amount in question at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank plus three percentage points.

Finally, the Court emphasises that, should the Government fail to comply with the terms of their unilateral declaration s , the application s could be restored to the list in accordance with Article 37 § 2 of the Convention ( Josipović v. Serbia (dec.), no. 18369/07, 4 March 2008).

In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case s out of the list .

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Decides to join the applications;

Takes note of the terms of the respondent Government ’ s declaration s under Article 6 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and of the modalities for ensuring compliance with the undertakings referred to therein;

Decides to strike the applications out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention.

Marialena Tsirli Ján Å ikuta Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

No.

Application No.

Lodged on

Applicant

Date of birth

Place of residence

Nationality

61608/10

29/09/2010

Tomislav BOGATIROV

06/02/1952

Leskovac

Serbian

61836/10

29/09/2010

Biserka CVETANOVIĆ

04/10/1953

Leskovac

Serbian

61870/10

29/09/2010

Svetlana AGAJ

03/12/1964

Kosovska Kamenica

Serbian

61938/10

29/09/2010

Milanka DISIĆ

30/06/1968

Leskovac

Serbian

61970/10

29/09/2010

Slađana DONEVIĆ

15/12/1965

Leskovac

Serbian

61973/10

29/09/2010

Stojan ĐIKIĆ

07/12/1956

Leskovac

Serbian

62588/10

29/09/2010

Smiljana JOVANOVIĆ

07/02/1949

Leskovac

Serbian

62590/10

29/09/2010

Tatjana JOVANOVIĆ

08/12/1964

Leskovac

Serbian

62645/10

29/09/2010

Miomir MARINKOVIĆ

12/11/1948

Leskovac

Serbian

62664/10

29/09/2010

Slavica MARKOVIĆ

22/02/1957

Leskovac

Serbian

62673/10

29/09/2010

Radmila MIŠIĆ

07/08/1954

Leskovac

Serbian

62835/10

29/09/2010

Stojan MLADENOVIĆ

02/12/1953

Leskovac

Serbian

62857/10

29/09/2010

Verica NOVKOVIĆ

18/10/1956

Leskovac

Serbian

63522/10

29/09/2010

Zoran STOILJKOVIĆ

11/03/1951

Leskovac

Serbian

63622/10

29/09/2010

Milisav STRAHINIĆ

04/09/1955

Leskovac

Serbian

63670/10

29/09/2010

Jasmina TONIĆ

24/09/1950

Leskovac

Serbian

63678/10

29/09/2010

Ljubinka VASILJKOVIĆ

23/09/1962

Leskovac

Serbian

64922/10

29/09/2010

Mirjana PEJIĆ

15/09/1963

Leskovac

Serbian

64973/10

29/09/2010

Vladimir CVETANOVIĆ

06/09/1949

Leskovac

Serbian

64978/10

29/09/2010

Ljiljana ĐEKIĆ

11/12/1951

Niš

Serbian

LEXI

Lexploria AI Legal Assistant