Information Note on the Court’s case-law 66

July 2004

Di Sante v. Italy (dec.) - 56079/00

Decision 24.6.2004 [Section I]

Article 35

Article 35-1

Exhaustion of domestic remedies

Effective domestic remedy

Effectiveness of cassation appeal to contest amount of compensation paid under the Pinto law in respect of non-pecuniary damage

The applicant brought an action on the basis of the “Pinto Act”, complaining of the excessive length of compensation proceedings brought by him more than ten years previously. The court of appeal dealing with the case found that a “reasonable time” had been exceeded. It dismissed the applicant’s request for compensation in respect of pecu niary damage and, deciding on an equitable basis, awarded compensation in respect of non-pecuniary damage and an amount for costs and expenses. The applicant did not appeal on points of law. In four judgments, the text of which was deposited with the Regis try on 26 January 2004, the Italian Court of Cassation, sitting as a full court, established the principle that, when ruling on “Pinto appeals”, courts of appeal were to determine the amounts of non-pecuniary damage with reference to awards made by the Str asbourg Court in similar cases. The applicant complained of the amount awarded by the court of appeal in respect of non-pecuniary damage.

Admissible under Article 6 § 1: In its Scordino decision (see the summary in Case-Law Report No. 53 of May 2003), the Court considered that where the applicant complained only about the amount of compensation awarded under the “Pinot Act”, he or she was not obliged to exhaust the remedy of an appeal on points of law against the appeal court decision which had determined the disputed amount. Given the recent departure from the case-law introduced in January 2004 by the Italian Court of Cassation sitting as full court, appeals on points of law now fulfil the requirements in order for their use to be mandatory for the purpos es of Article 35 § 1. The judgments of January 2004 could no longer be disregarded by the public as of 26 July 2004, the date from which applicants were obliged to use that form of appeal for the purposes of Article 35 § 1 before applying to the Court. In the instant case, the time-limit available to the applicant for appealing on points of law had expired by that date. The respondent Government’s objection in the instant case of non-exhaustion of domestic remedies was thus dismissed.

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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