PROCEDURE

The case originated in an application (no. 58675/00) against the French Republic lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by a French national, Mr Michel Martinie (“the applicant”), on 15 February 1999.

The applicant was represented by Mr M. Meyer, a lawyer practising in Strasbourg. The French Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms E. Belliard, Director of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The application was allocated to the Second Section of the Court (Rule 52 § 1 of the Rules of Court). On 13 January 2004 it was declared partly admissible by a Chamber of that Section composed of Gaukur Jörundsson, President, Jean-Paul Costa, Loukis Loucaides, Karel Jungwiert, Volodymyr Butkevych, Wilhelmina Thomassen and Mindia Ugrekhelidze, judges, and Lawrence Early, Deputy Section Registrar. On 3 May 2005 a Chamber of that Section composed of András Baka, President, Jean-Paul Costa, Ireneu Cabral Barreto, Rıza Türmen, Karel Jungwiert, Antonella Mularoni and Elisabet Fura-Sandström, judges, and Sally Dollé, Section Registrar, relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber, neither of the parties having objected to relinquishment (Article 30 of the Convention and Rule 72).

The composition of the Grand Chamber was determined in accordance with the provisions of Article 27 §§ 2 and 3 of the Convention and Rule 24.

The applicant and the Government each filed observations on the merits.

A hearing took place in public in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg, on 16 November 2005 (Rule 59 § 3). There appeared before the Court: (a) for the Government Ms E. Belliard, Director of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Agent, Ms A.-F. Tissier, Deputy Director of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms C. Joly, Drafting Secretary, Human Rights Section, Legal Affairs Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr B. Genevois, President of the Judicial Division, Conseil d’Etat, Mr J.-Y. Bertucci, Principal Advocate-General at the Court of Audit, Mr O. Ortiz, President of the Regional Audit Office of Alsace, Advisers; (b) for the applicant Mr M. Meyer, lawyer, Ms V. Lechevallier, lawyer, Counsel. The Court heard addresses by Mr Meyer and Ms Belliard and by Mr Genevois and Mr Bertucci.

THE FACTS

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE

The applicant, who is a civil servant in the State education service, was born in 1948 and lives in Papeete.

In June 1987 the Lycée René-Cassin in Bayonne – of which the applicant had been appointed accountant by a decision of the Director of Education for Bordeaux – and the French Federation of Basque Pelota signed an agreement to set up a centre at the school which would allow young athletes to continue studying during their training: the Basque Pelota National Training Centre (Centre national d’entraînement à la pelote basque – “the CNEA”). The CNEA, which had no separate legal personality, was attached to the school’s budget. The headmaster of the school was the director and authorising officer in respect of expenditure, and the applicant, who was appointed general secretary of the centre, was the accountant. In December 1987 the headmaster instituted a fixed monthly allowance in favour of the director of the CNEA and its general secretary.

On an audit of the accounts submitted by the applicant for the years 1989 to 1993, the Aquitaine Regional Audit Office gave interim rulings on 3 May 1996 and 11 March 1997 ordering the applicant to produce certain supplementary evidence. In a judgment of 17 October 1997, the Aquitaine Regional Audit Office declared that the applicant owed the school the following amounts plus interest: 191,893.09 French francs (FRF), FRF 11,407.75 and FRF 17,806.60. Those amounts corresponded to payments made by the applicant in his capacity as public accountant of the school for the years 1989 to 1993. The first sum related to the fixed monthly allowance paid to the headmaster of the school in his capacity as director of the CNEA and to the applicant himself as general secretary; the second sum concerned a cashier’s indemnity paid to the applicant himself out of funds managed by the CNEA’s separate accounting department; and the third concerned the transfer of holiday compensation into the CNEA’s separate accounting department in favour of the director of the centre and the applicant himself. In its judgment, the Regional Audit Office noted that there was no resolution by the board of governors of the Lycée René-Cassin authorising these allowances – whereas that was the only body with power to set up a system of allowances – and, referring to the relevant provisions, pointed out that “the public accountant must satisfy himself that the documents he submits in support of the payments for which he takes charge are issued by the appropriate authority”.

The applicant appealed to the Court of Audit, which gave judgment on 20 October 1998 upholding the main parts of the Regional Audit Office’s judgment but partly varying the total amount to be repaid, which it reduced to FRF 191,893.09.

In a decision of 22 October 1999, the Conseil d’Etat declared an appeal on points of law lodged by the applicant “inadmissible”. The decision is worded as follows: “Under section 11 of the Law of 31 December 1987 reforming administrative proceedings, ‘an appeal on points of law to the Conseil d’Etat is first subjected to an admissibility procedure. Leave to appeal is refused by judicial decision if the appeal is inadmissible or not based on a genuine ground of appeal’. In applying for the judgment of 20 October 1998 [of] the Court of Audit ... to be set aside, Mr Martinie submitted that the judgment had been given in breach of the provisions of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention ..., since he had neither been summoned to appear nor invited to submit his observations; he had not been aware of the date of the hearing fixed by the Court of Audit; and the reporting judge and counter-reporting judge had taken part in the deliberations of the Court of Audit. In his submission, the Court had misdirected itself in law in considering that only an executory resolution of the school’s board of governors could have constituted justification for the payment; the accountant could not be held liable for the expenditure paid by the [CNEA] prior to 21 February 1992, which was the date of his appointment as accountant of the ‘direct accounting department’ that had borne the irregular expenditure; and, lastly, the Court of Audit had further misdirected itself in law by ordering repayment of the sum in question to the Lycée René-Cassin. None of these grounds justifies granting leave to appeal.”

On 7 June 2001, on a non-contentious application, the Minister of Finance granted the applicant partial remission of the surcharge levied by the Court of Audit, in the sum of 21,953.91 euros (EUR), with EUR 762.25 thus remaining payable by him.