Published on 20 February 2023

FOURTH SECTION

Application no. 55001/20 Vasile CHIVU against Romania lodged on 3 December 2020 communicated on 30 January 2023

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns alleged denial of the applicant’s right of access to a court. In the context of insolvency proceedings against a commercial company, the applicant bought at the auction organised by the insolvency administrator a part of the debtor’s assets (movable assets amounting to RON 265,567 – equivalent of EUR 60,000). Following several unsuccessful attempts to take possession of the assets for which the full price had been paid, on 14 September 2018 the applicant lodged an action with the insolvency court seeking the cancellation of the auction report issued on 7 February 2018 and published in the Bulletin of Insolvency Proceedings on 23 March 2018. The applicant asked for the reinstatement of the parties in the situation prior to the auction sale and for the reimbursement of the amount transferred to the account of the insolvent company.

By a judgment of 21 October 2019, the Bucharest County Court dismissed the applicant’s request as out of time noting that according to the law on insolvency proceedings, Law no. 85/2014, his request should have been lodged within seven days from the publication of the auction report in the Bulletin of Insolvency Proceedings. Moreover, the court stressed that the applicant could only enforce his claims within the framework of the insolvency proceedings.

By a final decision of 23 June 2020, the Bucharest Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal lodged by the applicant against the County Court’s judgment on 6 December 2019 as out of time pointing out that it had been lodged more than seven days after 15 November 2019, the date on which the judgment of the Bucharest County Court had been published in the Bulletin of Insolvency Proceedings. The Bucharest Court of Appeal calculated the time-limit for lodging the appeal from the date when that judgment was published in the Bulletin of Insolvency Proceedings and not from the date when it was sent to the applicant by post (3 December 2019).

Relying on Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, the applicant claims that the calculation of the time-limit for the cancellation of the auction report and his appeal in insolvency proceedings from the date of its publication in the Bulletin of Insolvency Proceedings is too restrictive and prevented the examination of his claims by the competent courts.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

1. Did the applicant have access to a court for the determination of his civil rights and obligations, in accordance with Article 6 § 1 of the Convention?

2. In particular, considering the manner in which the judgment of 21 October 2019 of the Bucharest County Court was made available, both via the postal services and through the Bulletin of Insolvency Proceedings, did the applicant have a fair opportunity to have knowledge of that decision and to appeal against it within the time-limits set by law (see, mutatis mutandis , Zavodnik v. Slovenia , no. 53723/13, §§ 69-74 and 81, 21 May 2015)?

3. In addition, did the applicant have a fair opportunity to have his claims concerning the cancellation of the auction report examined by a court?