Communicated on 19 March 2018

FIRST SECTION

Application no. 47432/14 P.B. and Others against Italy lodged on 29 May 2014

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The applicants are Italian nationals. They are the heirs of an individual who had contracted an infectious disease through blood transfusions.

The applicants brought civil proceedings against the Health Ministry seeking an award of damages. In calculating the damages to award them, the domestic courts deducted the amount of the assistance allowance they had received by virtue of Law no. 210 of 25 February 1992. The domestic courts found that – if the latter had not been deducted from the former – the applicants would have received an unjust enrichment.

QUESTIONS tO THE PARTIES

1. Have the applicants exhausted all effective domestic remedies, as required by Article 35 § 1 of the Convention? In particular:

- having regard to the relevant legislation, was the compensatory remedy introduced by article 27bis of Law Decree no. 90 of 24 June 2014 (converted into Law no. 114 of 11 August 2014) applicable to the applicants ’ situation?

- if so, was such a remedy an effective remedy in respect of the applicants ’ complaint under Article 2 of the Convention?

2. Having regard to the procedural obligation under Article 2 of the Convention in the context of health care ( Lopes de Sousa Fernandes v. Portugal [GC], no. 56080/13, §§ 214-221, ECHR 2017), has the action for damages, as provided in law and applied in practice, constituted legal means capable of, inter alia , providing appropriate redress to the victim (see also Arskaya v. Ukraine , no. 45076/05, § 66, 5 December 2013)?

In particular, did the fact that the assistance allowance paid to the applicants by virtue of Law no. 210 of 1992 had been deducted from the damages awarded render the redress offered to the applicants unsatisfactory for the purposes of the procedural obligation under Article 2 of the Convention (see, mutatis mutandis , Oyal v. Turkey , no. 4864/05, § 72, 23 March 2010?)?

N o .

Initials

Birth date

Place of residence

Representative

P. B.

01/02/1973

Nocera Inferiore

A.G. Lana

F. B.

11/10/1967

Nocera Inferiore

A.G. Lana

R. B.

18/12/1965

Fiumicino

A.G. Lana

A. O.

13/10/1945

Nocera Inferiore

A.G. Lana