Teker and Others v. Turkey

SECOND SECTION

Application no. 77527/14 Salim TEKER and Others against Turkey and 4 other applications

(see appended table)

The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting on 14 May 2020 as a Committee composed of:

Ivana Jelić, President, Arnfinn Bårdsen, Darian Pavli, judges,

and Liv Tigerstedt, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above applications lodged on the various dates indicated in the appended table,

Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the cases,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

The list of applicants is set out in the appended table.

The applicants were represented by Mr A. Aktay, a lawyer practising in Mersin.

The applicants’ complaints under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and Article 6 of the Convention, concerning a judicial practice of the civil courts, in the context of expropriation proceedings, to order the parties to pay a lump sum to the opposing party in respect of legal fees and the failure to apply interest to the compensation amounts which they award, were communicated to the Turkish Government (“the Government”).

In their observations, the Government informed the Court that Abdullah Teker, one of the applicants in the application no.77527/14, had died on 2 May 2016 and requested the Court to strike out his application. On 17 July 2019 the Court received a letter from the said applicant’s representative informing the Court that he had not been able to reach the applicant’s heirs so as to provide a certificate of inheritance and an authority form.

As for the remainder of the applications, the Court received friendly-settlement declarations signed by the parties under which the applicants agreed to waive any further claims against Turkey in respect of the facts giving rise to these applications, subject to an undertaking by the Government to pay them the amounts detailed in the appended table to cover any pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage as well as costs and expenses, plus any taxes that may be applicable. For the amounts indicated in Turkish liras (“TRY”), statutory interest shall run from the calculation date (1 June 2019) until the payment date. These amounts will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court. In the event of failure to pay this sum within the said three-month period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on it, from the expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points. The payment will constitute the final resolution of the cases.

THE LAW

Having regard to the similar subject matter of the applications, the Court finds it appropriate to examine them jointly in a single decision.

As concerns the complaints lodged by Mr Abdullah Teker, the Court notes that he died on 2 May 2016 and that no heirs have presented themselves to pursue his complaints. In view of this, and in the absence of any special circumstances regarding respect for the rights guaranteed by the Convention and the Protocols thereto, the Court, in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention, considers that it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the part of application no. 77527/14 lodged by Mr Abdullah Teker.

As for the remainder of the applications, the Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and the Protocols thereto and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the applications.

In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the cases out of the list.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Decides to join the applications;

Decides to strike the part of application no. 77527/14 introduced by Mr Abdullah Teker out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention;

Decides to strike the remainder applications out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention.

Done in English and notified in writing on 4 June 2020.

Liv Tigerstedt Ivana Jelić Acting Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

List of applications raising complaints under Article 1 of Protocol No.1 to the Convention and Article 6 of the Convention

No.

Application no. Date of introduction

Applicant’s name

Date of birth

Date of receipt of Government’s declaration

Date of receipt of Applicant’s declaration

Amount awarded for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and costs and expenses per applicant unless

indicated “jointly”

(in TRY) [1]

77527/14

09/12/2014

(7 applicants)

Salim TEKER

01/02/1965

Asiye DEVECİ

01/02/1965

Havva ÖZÇELİK

02/12/1952

Fadime ÇOĞALAN

10/01/1951

Hatice ÜNAL

10/02/1978

Mehmet TEKER

05/01/1955

-----------------------------------

Abdullah TEKER

10/01/1967

(deceased on 02/05/2016 – no heirs)

14/01/2020

11/02/2020

3,723 jointly

(except for the deceased applicant)

25839/15

20/05/2015

(6 applicants)

Necati ALTUNAY

22/10/1957

Emine ALTUNAY

16/09/1933

Fatma DÜZENLİ

26/11/1958

Ummahan BAŞCI

15/05/1963

Hüseyin ALTUNAY

14/10/1970

Ali ALTUNAY

15/05/1954

14/01/2020

11/02/2020

2,819 jointly

26309/15

20/05/2015

Mehmet BAYINDIR

15/02/1944

12/11/2019

11/02/2020

3,669

27716/15

01/06/2015

Mehmet AKTEPE

15/07/1938

12/11/2019

11/02/2020

12,596

61382/15

02/12/2015

(3 applicants)

Ayşe BAŞCI

12/02/1931

Ayşe GÜLEÇ

01/05/1949

Fadime OSMA

10/05/1952

12/11/2019

11/02/2020

2,402 jointly

[1] Plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicants.