Communicated on 14 September 2020 Published on 5 October 2020

THIRD SECTION

Application no. 28492/20 Sabrina CARATTONI and Maria CRESCENTINI against San Marino lodged on 25 June 2020

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The applicants, Ms Sabrina Carattoni and Ms Maria Crescentini , are citizens of San Marino, who were born in 1970 and 1949 respectively and live in San Marino. They are represented before the Court by Ms G. Giardi , a lawyer practising in Murata.

The circumstances of the case

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

In 1997 X instituted proceedings (no. 41/1997) against the social security institute. Until September 2003 the collection of evidence phase had not been initiated.

The proceedings at issue in the present case

On 18 September 2003 X instituted proceedings (no. 264/2003) against the State - in the form of an action for civil responsibility of magistrates - complaining about the delay in proceedings no. 41/1997.

On 21 April 2005 the court made a constitutional reference which was rejected by the court of constitutional jurisdiction on 10 November 2005.

In 2010 X died and these proceedings were continued by the applicants (his daughter and wife) as heirs of the deceased.

By a judgment of 28 April 2020, the court found against the applicants considering that the delay in the proceedings against the social security were not excessive.

On 17 June 2020 the applicants appealed, but a hearing has not yet been set, no judge having been assigned to the relevant court.

COMPLAINT

The applicants complain under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the unreasonable length of the proceedings no. 264/2003, in particular seventeen years for a judgment at first-instance concerning the magistrate ’ s responsibility for the delay in another set of proceedings.

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Is the length of the civil proceedings in the present case in breach of the “reasonable time” requirement of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention?