Information Note on the Court’s case-law 11

October 1999

Gonzalez Marin v. Spain (dec.) - 39521/98

Decision 5.10.1999 [Section IV]

Article 35

Article 35-1

Exhaustion of domestic remedies

Effective domestic remedy

Effective remedies for complaining of excessive length of proceedings

The applicant, an engineer working on a dam, was prosecuted for his part in its bursting and the fatal flood that had ensued. He was charged by the investigating judge on 27 January 1983. On 18 December 1993 the Valencia Audiencia Provincial ordered the case-file to be returned to the investigating judge to allow further victims to join the criminal proceedings in order to claim da mages. On 1 December 1994 the Constitutional Court ruled, in the context of an amparo application, that the proceedings had gone on for an excessive time and ordered the Audiencia Provincial to open the trial immediately. The proceedings did not, however, end until 15 April 1997 when the Supreme Court sentenced the applicant to one month’s imprisonment and to pay fines. Thereupon, the applicant lodged an amparo application with the Constitutional Court, complaining of, amongst other matters, the excessive l ength of the proceedings. Since amparo applications concerning the length of judicial proceedings must be lodged while those proceedings are still continuing, the applicant’s action was dismissed as out of time. The Constitutional Court also recalled that it had already dealt with the complaint in question and remedied it in the earlier amparo proceedings.

Inadmissible under Article 6 § 1: The applicant had chosen to complain of the length of the proceedings – after the case had been disposed of – to the Co nstitutional Court, whereas he could have applied to the Ministry of Justice for compensation on the grounds that the judicial system had not functioned properly in his case. Since any decision by the minister could have been challenged in the administrati ve courts, that legal avenue had been sufficiently accessible and effective: non-exhaustion.

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

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