THIRD SECTION

DECISION

Application s no s . 3402/06 , 8141/06, 17289/06 and 17623/06 by Matjaž VREČAR and 3 others against Slovenia

The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 1 June 2010 as a C ommittee composed of:

Elisabet Fura , President, Boštjan M. Zupančič , Ineta Ziemele , judges, and Stanley Naismith, Deputy Section Registrar ,

Having regard to the above application s,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government,

Having regard to the settlement agreements signed by the parties,

Having regard to Protocol No. 14 ,

Having deliberated, decides as follows :

THE FACTS

The applicants are Slovenian nationals who live in Slovenia .

The applicants, Mr Matjaž Vrečar , Ms Slavica Žlebnik and Mr Marko Križnik , were represented before the Court by Ms Mateja Končan Verstovšek , a lawyer practising in Celje .

The applicant, Mr Janez Martin Omerza , was represented by Ms Jazbinšek Goričan , a lawyer practising in Celje .

The Slovenian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr Lucijan Bembič , State Attorney-General.

The circumstances of the case

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

The applicants were parties to civil proceedings which were finally resolved ( pravnomočno končan postopek ) before 1 January 2007, that is, before the 2006 Act on the Pr otection of the Right to a Trial Without Undue Delay (“the 2006 Act ” ) became operational.

Subsequently, they lodged an appeal on points of law with the Supreme Court ( Vrhovno sodišče ) , and in certain cases also a constitutional complaint with the Constitutional Court ( Ustavno sodišče ).

The details concerning the case s are indicated in the attached table.

COMPLAINTS

The applicants complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the excessive length of civil proceedings and under Article 13 of the Convention about the lack of an effective domestic remedy in that regard.

THE LAW

I n the present cases, the Court notes that, after the Government had been given notice of the applications in 2009 , they submitted their observations and informed the Court that they had made a settlement proposal to each of the applicants.

By the settlement agreements signed by the State ' s Attorney ' s Office and the applicants, the former acknowledged a violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time and accepted to pay the applicants the non-pecuniary damage sustained and costs and expenses incurred . The applicants accepted the amount as full compensation for the damage sustained due to the length of the above proceedings and waive d any further claims against the Republic of Slovenia in respect of this complaint.

T he applicant s subsequently informed the Court that they had reached settlement s with the State ' s Attorney ' s Office and that they wished to withdraw their application s introduced before the Court.

The Court recalls Article 37 of the Convention which, in the relevant part, reads as follows:

“1. The Court may at any stage of the proceedings decide to strike an application out of its list of cases where the circumstances lead to the conclusion that

(a) the applicant does not inte nd to pursue his application;

...

However, the Court shall continue the examination of the application if respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and the Protocols thereto so requires.”

The Court takes note that following the settlement s reached between the parties the matter has been resolved at the domestic level and that the applicant s do not wish to pursue their application s . It is satisfied that respect for human rights as defined in the Convention or its Protocols does not require the examination of the application to be continued (Article 37 § 1 in fine of the Convention).

In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case s out of the list in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention.

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

Decides to join the applications;

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

S tanley Naismith Elisabet Fura              Deputy Registrar President

Appendix

No.

Application No.

Applicant ' s Name

Year of Birth

Address

Date of Introduction

Date of settlement proposal or agreement signed by the State Attorney

Date of the applicant ' s withdrawal of the application

Amount of compensation

in euros

1.

3402/06

Matjaž Vrečar

1972Velenje

27/12/2005

30/09/2009

09/10/2009

1,373.76

2.

8141/06

Slavica Žlebnik

1962Šoštanj

17/02/2006

04/09/2009

16/09/2009

1,366.75

3.

17289/06

Marko Križnik

1977Loka pri Žumsu

10/04/2006

11/01/2010

20/01/2010

735.85

4.

17623/06

Janez Martin Omerza

1946Ljubljana

07/04/2006

09/02/2010

11/02/2010

5,559.81