5.  The applicant was born in 1950 and lives in Sofia. He is a lawyer practising in Sofia.
6.  The applicant signed a contract with the then Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture and Forests (hereafter “the Ministry”) on 15 July 2004. According to the terms of the contract the applicant undertook to act as a legal representative for the Ministry in a case before the International Court of Arbitration in Paris, for which the Ministry was to pay him 58,100 Bulgarian Levs (BGN, about EUR 29,600). This sum comprised a legal fee and all related costs and expenses incurred by him in connection with the representation.
7.  The Ministry paid the applicant half of the amount due on the day the contract was signed. The contract stipulated that the second half was to be paid to him at the end of the proceedings.
8.  The proceedings before the International Court of Arbitration in Paris ended on 28 November 2005. On 19 December 2005 the applicant asked the Ministry to pay him the balance due, but the Ministry failed to reply. The applicant then asked the Sofia District Court to issue him with a writ of enforcement against the Ministry. On 23 February 2006 the court issued the writ on the basis of the contract of 15 July 2004 for the amount of BGN 29,631, comprising BGN 29,050 due on the basis of the contract and BGN 581 for costs related to the enforcement proceedings, plus the legal interest rate for the period from 1 February 2006 until full payment.
9.  On 24 February 2006, in compliance with Article 399 of the 1952 Code, a notary acting for the applicant served the original writ of enforcement on the Ministry and requested that the institution pay. As the Ministry still did not reply, the applicant sought the assistance of the Ombudsman. Subsequently, the Ministry confirmed to the Ombudsman in a letter of 27 March 2006 that it had received a notarial request for payment and the writ of enforcement in the applicant’s case. It also stated that, if money for the honouring of debts of the Ministry had not been included in the current year’s budget, this would be done in the following year’s budget.
10.  In July 2006 the Ministry asked the Sofia Bar Association to open disciplinary proceedings against the applicant for acting against the interests of his client, the Ministry. The Sofia Bar Association terminated those proceedings the same year after establishing that the applicant had not acted contrary to the interests of the Ministry.
11.  The Ministry did not pay the balance due to the applicant. Instead, on 26 July 2006 the Ministry brought a civil claim against him in court, seeking damages for his failure to carry out the duties ensuing from the contract of 15 July 2004. The amounts sought in damages were 568,897.90 United States dollars (USD) and BGN 29,500 (approximately EUR 15,000), the latter explicitly referred to as corresponding to the first half of the fee due to the applicant which had been paid to him by the Ministry upon signing the contract. In addition, the Ministry sought BGN 4,648 (about EUR 2,300) by way of penalty, representing 8% of the total amount of BGN 58,100 (about EUR 29,600) due to the applicant in fees; that penalty had been provided for in the contract in case the applicant were to default on his contractual obligations. In its claim before the court the Ministry made no mention of the balance of the fee it owed the applicant on conclusion of the contract of 2004; a sum subject to a writ of enforcement and served on the Ministry earlier in 2006.
12.  In a judgment of 3 August 2009 the Sofia City Court, acting as a first-instance court, rejected the Ministry’s claim in respect of all amounts. The court found that although the Ministry had indeed incurred losses in the amount of USD 568,897.90 in the context of the arbitration proceedings in Paris, those losses had not been the result of the applicant’s conduct. The court found further that, because the applicant had complied with his contractual obligations, the payment he had received, corresponding to the first half of the agreed fee, had been owed and duly paid to him by the Ministry. Similarly, given that the applicant had complied with his contractual obligations, imposition of the penalty which had been agreed in the contract in the event of failure to deliver was not justified.
13.  Following an appeal by the Ministry, in a judgment of 30 April 2010, the Sofia Court of Appeal rejected the Ministry’s claim in respect of the two amounts sought in damages (see paragraph 11 above). As regards the first half of the fee paid to the applicant, in particular, the court observed that the Ministry had not claimed that the contract it had concluded with the applicant had been cancelled and found that the first half of the fee paid could not be considered as damages. The court held, however, that the applicant owed the Ministry the amount of BGN 4,648 (about EUR 2,300) by way of penalty because during the arbitration proceedings he had omitted to transmit to the Ministry a request by the arbitrator that the original of a document be submitted to the latter. The penalty agreed in the contract between the Ministry and the applicant was payable in the event of the failure of the applicant to comply with his obligations and the Ministry did not need to prove that it had incurred any loss as a result of the applicant’s conduct. The court therefore allowed the Ministry’s claim for the amount of BGN 5,102.88, which corresponded to BGN 4,648 by way of penalty and BGN 418.88 for case-related costs. Since the Ministry’s claim did not mention the balance of the fee due to the applicant, at no point did the court examine in that judgment whether the second half of the payment of the legal fee agreed in the contract was due to him following its conclusion.
14.  In a final decision of 28 June 2011, the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) did not allow a cassation review, finding that the statutory conditions for this were not met. The judgment of the Sofia Court of Appeal thus became final on that date.
15.  On 12 July 2011 the applicant again asked the Ministry, through a duly served notarial request, to pay to him the amount of BGN 57,964.81, which represented BGN 29,050 (the principal amount, corresponding to the balance of the fee due to him), BGN 12,874.58 (default penalty agreed in the contract in case of the Ministry’s failure to fulfil its contractual obligations), BGN 20,143.23 (legal interest rate) and BGN 581 (costs and expenses), minus the 8% default penalty in the amount of BGN 4,648 which the Sofia Court of Appeal had ordered the applicant to pay to the Ministry in its judgment.
16.  On 15 July 2011 the Ministry replied that its debts were to be paid from its annual budget and, in the event of the non-availability of funds, money for outstanding debts was to be included at the latest in the following year’s budget. The Ministry also asked the applicant to submit the original writ of execution. The applicant wrote to the Ministry on 28 July 2011 stating that he had already served it on them and specified the date and reference number of the notarial document with which that had been done (see paragraphs 8-9 above).
17.  On 2 August 2013 the applicant again asked the Ministry in writing to pay him the outstanding amount. They replied in writing the same month stating that they had received the original writ of enforcement on 24 February 2006 but could not trace what had happened to it thereafter.