Source: http://echr.ketse.com/doc/32367.96-en-20001005/view/
Timestamp: 2017-08-23 17:43:24
Document Index: 296729238

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 3', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 3', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 39', '§ 33', '§ 24', '§ 49', 'in fine', '§ 2']

APEH ULDOZOTTEINEK SZÖVETSEGE AND OTHERS v. HUNGARY
APEH ULDOZOTTEINEK SZÖVETSEGE AND OTHERS v. HUNGARY About Project
In the case of APEH Üldözötteinek Szövetsége and Others
v. Hungary,
Having deliberated in private on 14 September 2000,
1. The case originated in an application (no. 32367/96) against the Republic of Hungary lodged with the European Commission of Human Rights (“the Commission”) under former Article 25 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by an unregistered association, APEH Üldözötteinek Szövetsége, and three Hungarian nationals, Mr Péter Iványi, Mr Miklós Róth and Mr Szabolcs Szerdahelyi (“the applicants”), on 29 April 1996.
2. The applicant association was represented by Mr M. Róth (the third applicant), a lawyer practising in Budapest. The Hungarian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr L. Höltzl, Deputy Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice.
3. The applicants alleged, in particular, that proceedings concerning the applicant association's registration were unfair, in breach of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.
6. By a decision of 31 August 1999, the Court declared the application partly admissible [Note by the Registry. The Court's decision is obtainable from the Registry.].
8. APEH Üldözötteinek Szövetsége (Alliance of APEH's Persecutees) is an unregistered association with its head office in Budapest. APEH is the commonly used abbreviation for the Hungarian Tax Authority (Adó- és Pénzügyi Ellenőrzési Hivatal – “APEH”).
9. In May 1993 several private persons, among others Mr Iványi, Mr Róth and Mr Szerdahelyi, founded the applicant association. Its articles of association, dated 28 May 1993, state that the purpose of the association is, in particular, to promote the general interests of Hungarian taxpayers.
10. On 3 June 1993 the President of APEH, having learnt about the founding of the applicant association from the press, complained to the Budapest public prosecutor and the President of the Budapest Regional Court that the choice of name was defamatory for APEH. He requested that particular attention be paid to the proceedings concerning the association's registration and that his office have access to the documents relating to the proceedings. These letters of the President of APEH reached the addressees on 7 June 1993, but were not communicated to the applicants in the subsequent non-contentious proceedings aiming at the applicant association's registration.
11. On 18 June 1993 Mr Szerdahelyi requested the Budapest Regional Court to register the applicant association.
12. On 28 June 1993 the Regional Court returned the request for registration, ordering that APEH's approval for the use of its name be obtained, that the expression “persecutees” in the applicant association's name be altered to a neutral term and that provisions regulating the method of voting within the applicant association's bodies be added to its articles of association.
13. By a letter dated 2 July 1993 the public prosecutor's office intervened in the registration proceedings under Article 2/A § 1 of Law no. 3 of 1952 on the Code of Civil Procedure (“the Code of Civil Procedure”). The Regional Court received this letter on 8 July 1993. The applicants were not notified of this intervention.
14. Following some delays in the service of the order of 28 June 1993, the applicants submitted their reply to the Regional Court on
15. On 13 December 1993 the Supreme Court dismissed the applicants' challenge for bias. The Supreme Court found that the Regional Court's procedure had been in compliance with the relevant legal provisions and there was nothing to support the applicants' allegations as to any bias on the part of the Regional Court.
16. On 24 January 1994 the public prosecutor's office proposed to the Regional Court that the applicant association's request for registration be rejected, as the association had not met the requirements in the court order of 28 June 1993. This submission was received by the Regional Court on
17. In their submissions dated 7 January, but filed with the Regional Court only on 8 February 1994, the applicants confirmed that they had meanwhile adopted an amendment to the articles of association, reflecting the Regional Court's requirements as to the voting methods. Moreover, they argued that the requirement that they seek APEH's approval for the use of its name was legally “absurd”.
18. On 10 February 1994 the Regional Court rejected the applicant association's request for registration. It observed that the applicants had not obtained APEH's approval for the use of its name. In this respect, the Regional Court relied on section 7(1) of Law no. 2 of 1989 on freedom of association (“the Associations Act 1989”), according to which the name of an association should not give the impression that the association in question carries on its activities in a manner linked to those of another legal person, unless approved by the latter. Moreover, it held that the expression “persecutees” was defamatory for APEH as a State organ and was contrary to the standards of naming an association, as laid down by the Supreme Court in its Administrative College's Legal Opinion no. 1. Finally, the Regional Court found that the applicant association had only partly met the requirements as to the method of voting by its bodies.
19. The applicants appealed to the Supreme Court. Simultaneously, they complained about the dismissal of their challenge for bias.
20. On 7 July 1994 the Attorney-General's Office intervened in the appeal proceedings and proposed that the Supreme Court uphold the refusal of the request for registration. The applicants did not receive a copy of these submissions.
21. On 2 October 1995 the Supreme Court dismissed the applicant association's appeal. In addition to the reasons given by the Regional Court, it held that the applicant association's name did not correspond to its objectives, namely to reform the Hungarian taxation system, and that it could therefore not be registered under that name. The decision did not deal with the applicants' complaint about the dismissal of their challenge for bias.
22. On 21 February 1996 the Attorney-General's Office requested that the Supreme Court uphold the second-instance decision.
23. On 14 May 1996 the Supreme Court dismissed the petition for review. The decision was served on the applicants on 20 June 1996.
24. Section 1 of the Associations Act 1989 provides that freedom of association is a fundamental freedom for everyone. It guarantees that everyone shall have the right to form, together with other persons, organisations and communities or to participate in the activities of such associations.
Section 2(2) provides that the exercise of the right to freedom of association may not violate the rights and freedoms of others.
Section 2(3) prohibits the founding of associations primarily for economic or business purposes.
According to section 4(1), as in force when the applicant association's request for registration was examined, subsequent to the founding of an association, its registration must be requested before a court. Registration must not be denied unless the founders have failed to comply with the conditions specified in the Act; associations acquire legal capacity through registration.
Section 7(1) provides that the name and the objectives of an association must not create the impression that the activity it carries on is linked to the activity of another legal person, unless consent thereto is given by that legal person.
According to section 15(3), the courts must decide on requests for registration in non-contentious proceedings; such requests must be given priority. The courts' decisions must also be served on the public prosecutor's office.
25. Article 13 § 3 of Government Decree no. 105/1952 (28 December) provides that in non-contentious proceedings the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure must be applied, mutatis mutandis, unless the legal provisions governing certain non-contentious proceedings provide otherwise or the non-contentious nature of the proceedings excludes that.
26. Article 77 §§ 1 and 4 of Law no. 4 of 1959 on the Civil Code provide that everyone shall have the right to bear a name; it is a violation of this right if anyone unlawfully uses a name identical with or similar to the name of another person.
According to Article 78 §§ 1 and 2, protection of personality rights includes protection of the right to a good reputation; making or disseminating false or defamatory allegations against other persons or portraying real facts in a false way is deemed to be an infringement of the right to a good reputation.
27. Article 2/A § 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, as in force in the relevant period, provides that, to ensure compliance with the law, the public prosecutor may intervene in civil proceedings at any stage.
According to Article 2/A § 3, when intervening in civil proceedings, the public prosecutor enjoys all the procedural rights which the parties enjoy, save the rights to negotiate settlements, to waive rights or to acknowledge rights.
28. An extract from Supreme Court (Administrative College) Legal Opinion no. 1 reads as follows: “Before a decision is taken on the registration of an association, it must be examined whether the association's choice of name meets the requirements of the exclusivity, genuineness and correctness of names.”
29. The applicants complained under Article 6 § 1 that the proceedings concerning the applicant association's registration were unfair.
30. Referring to section 4(1) of the Associations Act 1989, the applicants contended that although the registration proceedings were characterised by domestic law as non-contentious, their outcome had been decisive for the applicant association's capacity to become the subject of rights and obligations – a consideration bringing the case clearly within the ambit of Article 6 § 1. This was even more so since the registration proceedings also involved a genuine dispute with the public prosecutor's office and, at least indirectly, with APEH as to the applicant association's choice of name.
31. For their part, the Government emphasised, relying essentially on sections 1 and 2(3) of the Associations Act 1989, that under Hungarian law the right of association as such was an issue of a public-law character. In any event, according to section 4(1), associations come into existence only through their registration, prior to which they do not have any legal existence at all, this being a circumstance excluding any civil-law implications of the registration proceedings themselves. As to the dispute about the choice of name, the Government were of the view that the domestic courts' decisions in this respect only concerned the public-law question whether or not the name at issue had been in compliance with the public interest, rather than the civil right to bear a name.
34. As to whether this right is a “civil” one, the Court reiterates that the concept of “civil rights and obligations” is not to be interpreted solely by reference to the respondent State's domestic law. Article 6 § 1 applies irrespective of the status of the parties, the nature of the legislation which governs the manner in which the dispute is to be determined and the character of the authority which has jurisdiction in the matter; it is enough that the outcome of the proceedings should be decisive for private rights and obligations (see, among many other authorities, the Stran Greek Refineries and Stratis Andreadis v. Greece judgment of 9 December 1994, Series A
no. 301-B, p. 78, § 39).
39. The Court recalls that under the principle of equality of arms, as one of the features of the wider concept of a fair trial, each party must be afforded a reasonable opportunity to present his case under conditions that do not place him at a disadvantage vis-à-vis his opponent (see the Dombo Beheer B.V. v. the Netherlands judgment of 27 October 1993, Series A
no. 274, p. 19, § 33). In this context, importance is attached to appearances (see, mutatis mutandis, the Borgers v. Belgium judgment of 30 October 1991, Series A no. 214-B, p. 31, § 24, and the authorities cited therein).
42. As regards the failure to notify the applicants of the submissions by the Attorney-General's Office at second instance, the Court notes the Government's assertion that these submissions had no bearing on the merits of the case. However, it is to be recalled that the principle of equality of arms does not depend on further, quantifiable unfairness flowing from a procedural inequality. It is a matter for the parties to assess whether a submission deserves a reaction and it is inadmissible for one party to make submissions to a court without the knowledge of the other and on which the latter has no opportunity to comment. It was therefore unfair that the applicants were not notified of the submissions made to the Supreme Court by the Attorney-General's Office (see, mutatis mutandis, the Bulut
v. Austria judgment of 22 February 1996, Reports 1996-II, pp. 359-60, § 49 in fine).
46. When submitting their application, the applicants claimed in general terms compensation for non-pecuniary damage and costs and expenses. However, subsequently they did not give particulars of these claims, as required by Rule 60 of the Rules of Court, although they were invited to do so.
47. The Court considers that the finding of a violation constitutes in itself sufficient compensation for any non-pecuniary damage suffered by the applicants. That being so, the Court finds that it is not appropriate to make any award under Article 41.
2. Dismisses the applicants' claims for just satisfaction.
Done in English, and notified in writing on 5 October 2000, pursuant to Rule 77 §§ 2 and 3 of the Rules of Court.
APEH ÜLDÖZÖTTEINEK SZÖVETSÉGE, IVÁNYI
RÓTH AND SZERDAHELYI v. HUNGARY JUDGMENT
APEH ÜLDÖZÖTTEINEK SZÖVETSÉGE and others v. HUNGARY JUDGMENT