6.  On an unspecified date in 1995 the applicants brought an action against the Bucharest Municipal Council and the Local Council of the Sixth District of Bucharest, seeking the recovery of property rights over 1,761 sq. m of land located at no. 37-39, Valea-Lungă Str., District No. 6, Bucharest.
7.  By a decision of 9 April 1998 the Bucharest County Court allowed the applicants’ action on the merits. The decision was not appealed against by the parties and thus became final.
8.  On 27 January 1999 the office of the Mayor of Bucharest, relying inter alia on Article 322 § 5 of the Romanian Code of Civil Procedure (hereinafter “the RCCP” – see paragraph 13 below), brought extraordinary appeal proceedings against the applicants, seeking review (revizuire) of the final judgment of 9 April 1998, and submitting that a new document had appeared concerning the land claimed by the applicants. They referred to a report drafted on 29 December 1998 by the Management Agency for Markets of District No. 6 (Administraţia Pieţelor sectorul 6 Bucureşti), which stated that the land claimed by the applicants was occupied by a marketplace.
9.  By a decision of 24 September 1999 the Bucharest County Court allowed the action brought by the office of the Mayor of Bucharest on the ground that the document had not been in the file during the first set of proceedings and that it showed that the land claimed by the applicants was occupied by a marketplace.
10.  By a decision of 29 January 2002 the Bucharest Court of Appeal allowed an appeal by the applicants on the ground that the document invoked by the office of the Mayor of Bucharest was a document which did not comply with the requirements set out in Article 322 § 5 of the RCCP, since it had not existed at the time when the final decision of 9 April 1998 was delivered. Furthermore, the court found that the domestic authorities had failed during the first set of proceedings to raise the issue of the legal situation of the land before the court without an objective reason and could have recovered the investment made on the land claimed by the applicants by bringing separate proceedings against the applicants and seeking recovery of the money.
11.  By a final decision of 14 January 2003 the Supreme Court of Justice allowed the appeal (recurs) lodged by the office of the Mayor of Bucharest on the ground that although the document had not existed during the proceedings which had ended by the final judgment of 9 April 1998, it concerned a pre-existing situation. Furthermore, the court found that the provisions of Article 322 § 5 of the RCCP had to be interpreted as referring to documents used by one party to prove, in the light of new elements, facts which generally had not been known by the court which had delivered the judgment under review. In the light of the above, the court held that the concept of “document” had to be interpreted restrictively. Lastly, it considered irrelevant the fact that the document relied on by the party seeking review had been obtained by means of the undertaking of research into other documents which had existed at the time of the judgment of 9 April 1998 and which attested to the same facts, but had not been brought before the court delivering the judgment in question.
12.  On 12 February 2002 the applicants filed a request pursuant to Law no. 10/2001 on the rules governing immovable property wrongfully seized by the State between 6 March 1945 and 22 December 1989; they requested the restitutio in natura of the plot of land of 1,761 sqm. It appears from the file that in 2010, the request was still pending before the administrative authorities, in so far as further documentation needed to be submitted.