Communicated on 1 February 2018

FIRST SECTION

Application no. 38704/15 Vlado BRATULIĆ against Croatia lodged on 31 July 2015

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns the denial of access to court in the civil proceedings the applicant instituted in 1989 against the insurance company D. from Belgrade seeking compensation for the damage sustained in a road traffic accident. In 2003 the first-instance court refused to allow the applicant to amend his action and sue, instead of the company D., the insurance company J. from Split which was in his view the legal successor of the former company on the territory of Croatia. That court decided so because it had considered that the company J. was not the legal successor of the company D. However, in 2011 the same court eventually dismissed the applicant ’ s action against the company D. by holding that it was the company J. which was actually liable to pay him compensation.

QUESTION tO THE PARTIES

Was the refusal of the domestic courts to allow the applicant to amend his civil action and sue the company J. instead of the initial defendant, company D., in breach his right of access to court, contrary to Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, given that those courts later on established that company J. was liable to pay him compensation and on that ground dismissed his action against the company D.?