Stojanović and Others v. Serbia

SECOND SECTION

Application no. 19322/18 Zoran STOJANOVIĆ and Others against Serbia

(see appended table)

The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting on 3 December 2020 as a Committee composed of:

Carlo Ranzoni, President, Branko Lubarda, Pauliine Koskelo, judges,

and Liv Tigerstedt, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 10 April 2018,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicants,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

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

The applicants were represented by Ms J. Mihailović , a lawyer practising in Valjevo.

The applicants’ complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention concerning the excessive length of administrative proceedings were communicated to the Serbian Government (“the Government”).

THE LAW

In the present application, having examined all the material before it, the Court considers that for the reasons stated below, the complaints concerning the excessive length of the impugned administrative proceedings are inadmissible.

The Court notes that the administrative proceedings started on 6 November 2009 when the applicants filed an appeal with the competent second-instance administrative body (see Počuča v. Croatia , no. 38550/02, § 30, 29 June 2006). It would appear that the proceedings are still pending almost 11 years later.

However, the Court observes that as regards the period from 6 November 2009 to 26 October 2017, the applicants can no longer claim to be victims within the meaning of Article 34 of the Convention since on the latter date the Constitutional Court expressly acknowledged the alleged breach and awarded the applicants 800 euros each in respect of non-pecuniary damage. Although that amount is lower than those awarded by the Court, the Court considers that it is still reasonable in view of the particular circumstance of this case, notably, the large number of applicants and the rather limited stakes involved in the case (see Sinđelić and Others v. Serbia (dec.), no. 7129/15, 29 August 2019).

As regards the period after 26 October 2017, the applicants failed to exhaust all effective domestic remedies as required by Article 35 §§ 1 of the Convention since they should complain again to the Constitutional Court about any further delays (see Becová v. Slovakia (dec.), no. 23788/06, 18 September 2007).

In view of the above, the Court concludes that the application must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 1, 3 and 4 of the Convention.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Declares the application inadmissible.

Done in English and notified in writing on 14 January 2021.

Liv Tigerstedt Carlo Ranzoni Acting Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

Application raising complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention

(excessive length of civil and/or administrative proceedings)

Application no.

Date of introduction

Applicant’s name

Year of birth

Start of proceedings

End of proceedings

Total length

Levels of jurisdiction

Relevant domestic decision

Domestic award in respect of non-pecuniary damage (in euros)

19322/18

10/04/2018

(32 applicants)

Zoran STOJANOVIĆ

1989

Goran ĐORĐEVIĆ

1966

Zoran LEPOVIĆ

1970

Zoran TANASKOVIĆ

1980

Darko VUKMIROVIĆ

1975

Srđan VUKOJIČIĆ

1976

Dejan STEFANOVIĆ

1983

Rade DIMITRIJEVIĆ

1969

Suzana GRBIĆ

1977

Slaviša VELIČKOVIĆ

1966

Milan NIKOLIĆ

1988

Aleksandar BEKČIĆ

1987

Slaviša ORLOVIĆ

1971

Radojko LUKOVIĆ

1973

Živoin RISTIĆ

1971

Slavko ZEČEVIĆ

1968

Branislav MITIĆ

1968

Bojan POPOVIĆ

1971

Jelena ŽIVKOVIĆ

1982

Ivan PREŠIĆ

1979

Aleksandar PETROVIĆ

1971

Slađan MATOVIĆ

1973

Miodrag KOJIĆ

1967

Spaso MLADENOVIĆ

1969

Saša ŽIVKOVIĆ

1977

Dejan RISTIĆ

1970

Novica JAKOVLJEVIĆ

1969

Dragan ŽIVKOVIĆ

1969

Petar PETROVIĆ

1970

Rakić VUKIĆ

1966

Slađan PANTIĆ

1969

Darko DUBOVAC

1968

06/11/2009

pending

More than 10 years and

11 months and 24 days

1 level of jurisdiction

Constitutional Court

Už-2465/2016

26/10/2017

800 euros