Communicated on 2 March 2018

FIRST SECTION

Application no. 19922/16 Stanko and Patricia MILAS against Croatia lodged on 29 March 2016

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns civil proceedings which the applicants instituted against a company seeking payment of a sum of money. Their claim was dismissed by the domestic courts as unfounded. In their constitutional complaint the applicants alleged that the wife of a Supreme Court judge, who had acted as a judge rapporteur in the proceedings at issue, had been employed at the defendant company while their case had been pending before the Supreme Court. The Constitutional Court dismissed their constitutional complaint as unfounded without making any comments on the applicants ’ allegations that the Supreme Court judge had been biased.

The applicants complain, under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, that they did not have a fair hearing in that the wife of a Supreme Court judge who sat in the panel that heard their appeal on points of law was employed at the defendant company.

QUESTION tO THE PARTIES

Did the fact that the wife of a Supreme Court judge, who acted as a judge rapporteur in the proceedings at issue, was employed at the defendant company amount to a violation of the applicants ’ right to a fair hearing before an impartial tribunal as required by Article 6 § 1 of the Convention?