ORDER OF THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE (Fourth Chamber)

4 March 1996

Case T-392/94

Diarmuid Rossa Phelan

v

Council of the European Union

‛No need to give a decision’

Full text in English II-295

Application for:

the annulment of the decision of the Council of 16 September 1994 not to admit the applicant to Open Competition CONS/A/338 on the ground that the application form was submitted out of time and for an order that the Council pay him damages.

Decision:

No need to give a decision.

Abstract of the Order

The applicant entered Open Competition CONS/A/338, opened on 18 January 1994 by the Council with a view to drawing up a reserve list for the recruitment of administrators. By letter dated 30 June 1994, the Directorate for Personnel and Administration of the Council (hereinafter ‘DPA’) informed the candidate that his application could not be accepted because it had been posted after the closing date, fixed in the Competition Notice at midnight on 28 February 1994.

The applicant responded to the correspondence from the DPA by sending three faxes on 6 July 1994, 29 July 1994 and 15 September 1994 and a letter by registered mail on 15 September 1994. He pointed out that, on 28 February 1994, the closing date for applications, he had left his application form with a messenger for the floor where he worked at the Court of Justice at the time and he offered to provide evidence of that fact.

By letter of 16 September 1994 the DPA informed the applicant that it had reexamined his file. It pointed out that the envelope containing his application form did not bear a postmark and that the date stamped by the Council's internal mail service was 3 March 1994. It informed the applicant that it could not give him a favourable reply since Section VI of the Competition Notice provided that the application form was to be posted before midnight on 28 February 1994, ‘the postmark being taken as proof’.

By application lodged at the Court Registry on 19 December 1994, the applicant brought an action for annulment of the decision of the DPA of 30 June 1994 not to admit him to Competition CONS/A/338 and for an order that the Council pay him damages.

In its defence, lodged on 12 September 1995, the Council indicated that the appointing authority had annulled the Competition Notice at issue by decision published in the Official Journal of 16 February 1995 (OJ 1995 C 39, p. 8).

Since the applicant had not lodged a reply by the date prescribed by the Registrar, 27 October 1995, the written procedure ended on that date.

The Court finds that the action, as defined by the claims set out in the application, has become devoid of purpose following the annulment of the Notice of Open Competition CONS/A/338 by decision of the Council published in the Official Journal of 16 February 1995.

As regards the applicant's claim that the decision of the DPA of 16 September 1994 refusing to admit him to Open Competition CONS/A/338 should be annulled, the Court observes that, even if the applicant were to succeed in his application, he could not take part in the competition in question since it has been annulled.

In so far as concerns the applicant's claim that he should be compensated for the material and nonmaterial damage he has suffered and the expenses he has incurred in that context, the Court finds that claim to have also become devoid of purpose since the applicant cannot have suffered harm by reason of not being able to take part in a competition which has not been organized.

Operative part:

There is no need to give a decision.

No need to give a decision (ORDER OF 4. 3. 1996 — CASE T-392/94 - PHELAN / CONSEIL) II-295