5.  The applicant was born in 1947 and lives in Plovdiv.
6.  Between 1992 and 2000 the applicant was involved in proceedings regarding the restitution of a flat which she and her family had been occupying. The flat, purchased from the State by the applicant’s parents in 1968, had become State property after having been nationalised in the period following 1947, and denationalisation legislation adopted in the beginning of the 1990s provided that under certain circumstances even properties which had in the meantime been sold to private parties could be subject to restitution. At the end of the proceedings at issue the courts found that the pre-nationalisation owners were the true owners of the flat by virtue of restitution. Those proceedings were the subject of the applicant’s first application before the Court, in which the Court found a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1, and also a violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention due to the length of the court proceedings (see Gyuleva and Others v. Bulgaria, no. 76963/01, 25 June 2009).
7.  On 1 February 2002 the persons recognised as owners of the flat at issue (the pre-nationalisation owners) sold it to a Mr and Mrs P. Soon after that, Mr and Mrs P. brought rei vindicatio proceedings against the applicant, who was still living in the property. Their claim was allowed at first instance by the Plovdiv District Court on 24 October 2002. Even though the rei vindicatio proceedings after that remained the subject of appeals, the applicant vacated the property on 10 January 2003. She moved to a house she owned in the village of Hrabrino, where she registered her address on 4 February 2003.
8.  On 4 May 2005 Mr and Mrs P. brought another action against the applicant, for unjust enrichment, alleging that she had had no valid legal grounds to live in their flat between 1 February 2002 and 10 January 2003, and seeking compensation.
9.  On 16 May 2005 the Plovdiv District Court issued a summons, notifying the applicant of the action brought against her and the date of the first court hearing. The summons was sent to the mayor of Hrabrino for delivery to the applicant. However, in a letter to the District Court dated 16 June 2005, the mayor sent the summons back, stating that “no such person has been registered” as living in the village.
10.  On 8 July 2005, upon a request by Mr and Mrs P., the Plovdiv Regional Directorate of the Interior issued a certificate confirming that the applicant’s last declared address was in the village of Hrabrino.
11.  Without making any further attempts to find the applicant, on 26 August 2005 the Plovdiv District Court, after concluding that the applicant was of “unknown address”, published a notification concerning the unjust enrichment proceedings in the State Gazette (Article 50 § 1 of the 1952 Code of Civil Procedure, see paragraph 18 below in fine).
12.  The District Court appointed ex officio a lawyer to represent the applicant, to whom all subsequent papers and notifications were served. According to the applicant, the lawyer did not adequately defend her interests in the proceedings, because she failed to seek to contact the applicant, to appeal against the Plovdiv District Court’s judgment, which would have been standard practice, to make any evidentiary requests, or to contest in any meaningful manner the claimants’ arguments, including by raising what the applicant considered a valid objection that the claims against her were partially time-barred.
13.  On 6 April 2006 the Plovdiv District Court gave judgment, allowing the claim against the applicant and ordering her to pay 3,573 Bulgarian levs (BGN), plus interest, to Mr and Mrs P.
14.  Upon an appeal by Mr and Mrs P., in a judgment of 10 July 2006 which was final, the Plovdiv Regional Court ordered the applicant to pay the claimants an additional BGN 1,006.21.
15.  The applicant became aware of the proceedings and the judgments against her on 22 February 2008, when she received a notice from a bailiff to pay the sums due.
16.  The applicant points to several additional facts. In 2004, she was appointed as a juror at the Plovdiv District Court for the period between 2005 and 2009 and she received notifications of the court hearings she needed to attend at another address she had provided to the authorities (the address of her brother in Plovdiv). At that same address, in 2007 and 2008, she received two summonses related to other unspecified proceedings brought against her by Mr and Mrs P. At that same address, in February 2008, she received the bailiff’s notice mentioned in the previous paragraph. The applicant is a well-known piano teacher at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv whose place of work could have been known to the authorities.
17.  In the months after February 2008 the applicant paid the sums owed by her in full. The overall amount paid, comprising the damages awarded to Mr and Mrs P., accrued interest and the relevant fees and expenses, totalled BGN 8,767.07 (equivalent to approximately 4,473 euros (EUR)).