Kis v. Hungary

FIRST SECTION

Application no. 40366/22 Helga KIS and Béla KIS against Hungary

(see appended table)

The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting on 16 May 2024 as a Committee composed of:

Gilberto Felici , President , Péter Paczolay, Raffaele Sabato , judges ,

and Attila Teplán, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 13 August 2022,

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 Mr B. Horváth T., a lawyer practising in Budapest.

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

THE LAW

Complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention (excessive length of civil proceedings)

In the present application, having examined all the material before it, the Court considers that for the reasons stated below, the respondent Government cannot be held liable for the protractedness of the proceedings.

In particular, the Court has found that an effective remedy is available in Hungary to provide redress for the alleged grievances (see Szaxon v. Hungary (dec.), no. 54421/21, 21 March 2023). However, the applicants have not availed themselves of this legal avenue.

In view of the above, the Court finds that these complaints are inadmissible for non-exhaustion of domestic remedies and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 1 and 4 of the Convention.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Declares the application inadmissible.

Done in English and notified in writing on 6 June 2024.

Attila Teplán Gilberto Felici Acting Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

Application raising complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention

(excessive length of civil proceedings)

Application no.

Date of introduction

Applicant’s name

Year of birth

Representative’s name and location

Start of proceedings

End of proceedings

Total length

Levels of jurisdiction

40366/22

13/08/2022

Household

Helga KIS

1969

Béla KIS

1969

Horváth T Béla

Budapest

31/07/2010

05/09/2022

12 year(s) and 1 month(s) and 6 day(s)

4 level(s) of jurisdiction