Source: http://echr.ketse.com/doc/22519.02-en-20060413/view/
Timestamp: 2020-07-10 13:46:25
Document Index: 487730398

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application no. 22519', '§ 1', '§ 1', 'in fine', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 76', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 23', '§ 16', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 35', '§ 41', '§ 37', '§ 2']

ALEKHINA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA About Project
CASE OF ALEKHINA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA
(Application no. 22519/02)
In the case of Alekhina and Others v. Russia,
1. The case originated in an application (no. 22519/02) against the Russian Federation lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by fifty-eight Russian national listed in appendix 1 on 20 November 2001.
4. The applicants live in the Voronezh Region.
5. They are in receipt of welfare payments for their children. In 1999 – 2001 the applicants brought separate sets of civil proceedings against a local welfare authority, claiming arrears in those payments.
7. On 26 July 2001 the bailiffs discontinued the enforcement proceedings in respect of the judgments in the applicants’ favour and returned them the writs of execution referring to the lack of the debtor’s funds.
8. Thereafter the applicants unsuccessfully applied to various public bodies seeking to have the judgments in their favour enforced.
9. In January and February 2004 the applicants were paid the amounts due pursuant to the writs of execution.
I. WITHDRAWAL OF THIRTEEN APPLICANTS
12. On 20 February and 19 March 2004 the Government informed the Court that thirteen of the applicants, namely Ms Lyudmila Ilyinichna Borzykh, Ms Larisa Ivanovna Vysotskaya, Ms Larisa Ivanovna Danilova, Ms Olga Mitrofanovna Kontsova, Ms Lyudmila Dmitriyevna Kryuchkova, Ms Nina Leonidovna Kuznetsova, Mr Nikolay Anatolyevich Popov, Ms Svetlana Alekseyevna Trofimova, Ms Yelena Federovna Khlopova, Ms Valentina Ivanovna Chernyshova, Ms Natalya Yuryevna Chernyshova, Ms Natalya Aleksandrovna Chusova and Ms Nina Anatolyevna Shaderkina, had accepted an offer in settlement of their application and invited the Court, in so far as the complaints of the respective applicants were concerned, to strike the application out of its list of cases under Article 37 § 1 (a) and (b) of the Convention. The Government enclosed copies of friendly settlement agreements dated 11 and 12 February as well as 12 and 15 March 2004 signed by an official representing the Government and the applicants. Under these agreements the Government undertook to pay the judgment debts and compensation in respect of non-pecuniary damage and legal costs to the applicants, while the latter declared that they did not intend to pursue the proceedings before the Court.
13. By registered letters of 2 September 2005 the Court transmitted copies of the above agreements to the applicants and invited them to affirm formally, before 7 October 2005, that they had accepted the settlement in question and that, therefore, they did not intend to pursue their application. On 3 October 2005 Mr Nikolay Anatolyevich Popov confirmed that he was satisfied with the terms of the friendly settlement agreement and did not insist on the Court’s examining his complaints. None of the other twelve applicants replied.
14. Taking into account the declarations of the aforementioned thirteen applicants, the formal affirmation by Mr Nikolay Anatolyevich Popov, and the fact that the remaining twelve applicants did not submit any comments regarding the friendly settlement, the Court finds that the matter has been resolved and the respective applicants have lost interest in pursuing their application. It finds no reasons of a general character, as defined in Article 37 § 1 in fine, which would require the examination of the application by virtue of that Article. Accordingly, in so far as the complaints of the thirteen applicants listed above are concerned, the Court strikes the application out of its list, in accordance with Article 37 § 1 of the Convention (see Tikhomirov and Tikhomirova v. Russia (dec.), no. 43172/98, 21 March 2002).
15. The remaining applicants complained about the prolonged non-enforcement of the judgments in their favour. The Court will examine this complaint under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention. These Articles, in so far as relevant, read as follows:
16. The Government notified the Court that the authorities of the Voronezh Region had attempted to secure a friendly settlement of the case and that the applicants had refused to accept the friendly settlement on the terms proposed by the authorities. By reference to this refusal, the fact that, in any event, the judgments in the applicants’ favour had been enforced, and the admissibility decision in the case of Aleksentseva and Others v. Russia (no. 75025/01 et seq., 4 September 2003) the Government invited the Court to strike out the application, in accordance with Article 37 § 1 of the Convention.
17. The applicants disagreed with the Government’s arguments and maintained their complaints. As regards the friendly settlement proposal, the applicants submitted that the terms of the offer which authorities of the Voronezh Region had made to them had been unacceptable.
18. The Court firstly observes that the parties were unable to agree on the terms of a friendly settlement of the case. It notes that whilst under certain circumstances an application may indeed be struck out of its list of cases under Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention on the basis of a unilateral declaration by the respondent Government even if the applicant wishes the examination of the case to be continued (see Tahsin Acar v. Turkey [GC], no. 26307/95, § 76, ECHR 2003-...), this procedure is not, as such, intended to circumvent the applicant’s opposition to a friendly settlement.
19. Moreover, a distinction must be drawn between, on one hand, declarations made in the context of strictly confidential friendly settlement proceedings (Article 38 § 2 of the Convention and Rule 62 § 2 of the Rules of Court) and, on the other hand, unilateral declarations made by a respondent Government in public and adversarial proceedings before the Court.
20. On the facts, the Court observes that the Government failed to submit any formal statement capable of falling into that category and offering a sufficient basis for finding that respect for human rights as defined in the Convention does not require the Court to continue its examination of the case (see, by contrast, Akman v. Turkey (striking out), no. 37453/97, §§ 23-24, ECHR 2001-VI).
21. As regards the Government’s argument that the judgments in question have already been enforced, the Court considers that the mere fact that the authorities complied with the judgments after a substantial delay cannot be viewed in this case as automatically depriving the applicants of their victim status under the Convention. (see, e.g., Petrushko v. Russia, no. 36494/02, § 16, 24 February 2005).
22. In the light of the above considerations, the Court rejects the Government’s request to strike the application out under Article 37 of the Convention.
24. The Government advanced no arguments on the merits of the application.
25. The applicants maintained their complaint.
26. The Court observes that the judgments in the applicants’ favour remained inoperative for several years. No justification was advanced by the Government for the respective delays.
27. The Court has frequently found violations of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 in cases raising issues similar to the ones in the present case (see, among other authorities, Burdov v. Russia, no. 59498/00, ECHR 2002-III and, more recently, Petrushko, cited above, or Poznakhirina v. Russia, no. 25964/02, 24 February 2005).
28. Having examined the material submitted to it, the Court notes that the Government did not put forward any fact or argument capable of persuading it to reach a different conclusion in the present case. Having regard to its case-law on the subject, the Court finds that by failing for years to comply with the enforceable judgments in the applicants’ favour the domestic authorities prevented them from receiving the money they could reasonably have expected to receive.
29. There has accordingly been a violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1.
30. The applicants also complained that the lengthy non-enforcement of the judgments in their favour violated their rights to effective domestic remedies under Article 13 of the Convention.
31. The Court considers that this complaint is linked to the above issues of non-enforcement to such an extent that it should be declared admissible as well. However, having regard to the finding relating to Article 6 § 1 (see paragraph 29 above), the Court considers that it is not necessary to examine whether, in this case, there has been a violation of Article 13.
33. The applicants claimed amounts set out in appendix 2 for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage. The respective amounts included the judgment debts index-linked to the inflation rate of 50 % for the default period as well as penalty payments at a rate of 1 % per day.
34. The Government contested the applicants’ claims as wholly excessive and unjustified. As regards the pecuniary damage, they pointed out that under national law it was open to the applicants to file a court claim, seeking interest for the delayed payment of their judgment debts, and that the domestic courts would calculate such interest on the basis of a statutory rate which was currently equal to 14 %. Therefore, in the Government’s view, the interest accrued by the applicants should amount to 52 % of their judgment debts. As to the non-pecuniary damage, the Government considered that should the Court find a violation in this case that would in itself constitute sufficient just satisfaction.
35. Having regard to the materials in its possession, the Court accepts the Government’s argument and awards the applicants the respective amounts set out in appendix 2, plus any tax that may be chargeable.
36. In so far as the compensation of non-pecuniary damage is concerned, the Court would not exclude that the applicants might have suffered distress and frustration resulting from the State authorities’ failure to enforce the judgment in their favour. However, making its assessment on an equitable basis, the Court considers that the finding of a violation constitutes in itself sufficient just satisfaction for any non-pecuniary damage sustained by the applicants (see, in a similar context, Poznakhirina, cited above, § 35, Mikhaylova and others v. Russia, no. 22534/02, § 41, 17 November 2005, or Bobrova v. Russia, no. 24654/03, § 37, 17 November 2005).
37. The applicants did not claim reimbursement of their costs and expenses incurred before the domestic authorities and the Court. Accordingly, the Court considers that there is no call to award them any sum on that account.
1. Decides to strike the application out of its list in so far as the complaints of Ms Lyudmila Ilyinichna Borzykh, Ms Larisa Ivanovna Vysotskaya, Ms Larisa Ivanovna Danilova, Ms Olga Mitrofanovna Kontsova, Ms Lyudmila Dmitriyevna Kryuchkova, Ms Nina Leonidovna Kuznetsova, Mr Nikolay Anatolyevich Popov, Ms Svetlana Alekseyevna Trofimova, Ms Yelena Federovna Khlopova, Ms Valentina Ivanovna Chernyshova, Ms Natalya Yuryevna Chernyshova, Ms Natalya Aleksandrovna Chusova and Ms Nina Anatolyevna Shaderkina are concerned;
(a) that the respondent State is to pay each of the applicants, within three months from the date on which the judgment becomes final in accordance with Article 44 § 2 of the Convention, the respective amounts set out in appendix 2 in respect of pecuniary damage, plus any tax that may be chargeable;
1. Ella Vladimirovna Alekhina
3 April 2000 / the Leninskiy District Court of Voronezh
2. Lyubov Vasilyevna Aseyeva
13 March 2000 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
3. Margarita Ivanovna Belyayeva
18 January 2000 / the Levoberezhny District Court of Voronezh
4,262.61
4. Irina Ivanovna Bondareva
5 January 2000 / the Kominternovskiy District Court of Voronezh
10,189.07
5. Lyudmila Ilyinichna Borzykh
23 October 2000 / the Tsentralny District Court of Voronezh
6. Tamara Yakovlevna Buneyeva
10 April and 23 May 2000 / the Zheleznodorozny District Court of Voronezh
7. Nadezhda Vasilyevna Buneyeva
5 April 2000 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
8. Svetlana Yakovlevna Butkova
28 April 2000 / the Vorobyevka Town Court of the Voronezh Region
9. Nina Yevgenyevna Bykova
13 January 2000 / the Tsentralny District Court of Voronezh
10. Larisa Ivanovna Vysotskaya
11. Tatyana Nikolayevna Garmysheva
5 June 2000 / the Levoberezhny District Court of Voronezh
2,030.12
12. Natalya Viktorovna Gladysheva
22 May 2000/the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Voronezh
4,480.13
13. Marina Vasilyevna Gunkina
14 July 2000 / the Kominternovskiy District Court of Voronezh
14. Larisa Ivanovna Danilova
1 September 2000 / the Tsentralny District Court of Voronezh
15. Olga Gennadyevna Dvoretskaya
31 October 2000 / the Kominternovskiy District Court of Voronezh
16. Lyudmila Pavlovna Zhidkova
11 October 2000 / the Kominternovskiy District Court of Voronezh
17. Raisa Aleksandrovna Izmaylova
3,720.99
18. Lyubov Alekseyevna Karabutova
20 January 2000 / the Levoberezhny District Court of Voronezh
3,857.86
19. Svetlana Leonidovna Kozhokina
29 September 2000 / the Kominternovskiy District Court of Voronezh
4,906.46
20. Olga Mitrofanovna Kontsova
18 January2000 / the Leninskiy District Court of Voronezh
21. Lyudmila Pavlovna Kopylova
11 January 2001 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
22. Lyudmila Dmitriyevna Kryuchkova
5 June 2000 / the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Voronezh
6,449.5
23. Nina Leonidovna Kuznetsova
5,275.43
24. Tamara Semenovna Kuznetsova
17 April 2000 / the Tsentralny District Court of Voronezh
25. Larisa Vasilyevna Maltseva
6 May 2000 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
26. Larisa Arkadyevna Milyayeva
12 January 2000 / the Tsentralny District Court of Voronezh
27. Lidiya Viktorovna Nemtsova
7 October 2000 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
28. Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Neupokoyeva
7 June 2000 / the Levoberezhny District Court of Voronezh
29. Yelena Viktorovna Pavlova
21 March 2000 / the Kominternovskiy District Court of Voronezh
30. Svetlana Grigoryevna Polishchuk
16 October 2000 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
3,835.93
31. Nikolay Anatolyevich Popov
29 December 2000 / the Levoberezhny District Court of Voronezh
2,407.09
32. Tatyana Mikhaylovna Poritskaya
33. Mariya Sergeyevna Reshetnikova
17 March 2000 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
6,944.79
34. Irina Yegorovna Roshchupkina
29 January 2001 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
5,343.56
35. Nadezhda Vasilyevna Rychkova
5 July 2000 / the Kominternovskiy District Court of Voronezh
36. Galina Mikhaylovna Ryazantseva
23 February 2001 / the Levoberezhny District Court of Voronezh
5,192.15
37. Galina Gennadyevna Sanina
4 August and 29 September 2000 / the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Voronezh
38. Lyudmila Alekseyevna Semchenko
29 May 2000, 27 October 2000 and 15 January 2001 / the Kominternovskiy District Court of Voronezh
14,019.52
39. Antonina Viktorovna Sergeyeva
24 March 2000 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
6,035.17
40. Vera Mitrofanovna Serikova
2,163.94
41. Tatyana Ivanovna Sirotenko
16 May 2000 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
14,207.77
42. Aleftina Aleksandrovna Skomorokhova
8 December 1999 / the Leninskiy District Court of Voronezh
43. Natalya Valeryanovna Solovyeva
19 June 2001/the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Voronezh
12,451.31
44. Vladimir Yuzikovich Talko
20 September 2000 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
45. Nina Ivanovna Tolkacheva
25 September 2000 / the Kominternovskiy District Court of Voronezh
46. Svetlana Alekseyevna Trofimova
47. Vera Yefimovna Trukhacheva
1 December 1999 / the Novovoronezh Town Court of the Voronezh Region
48. Yelena Fedorovna Khlopova
2 October 2000 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
49. Yelena Nikolayevna Chernikova
14 March 2000 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
50. Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Chernykh
8 September 2000 / the Sovetskiy District Court of Voronezh
51. Valentina Ivanovna Chernyshova
21 August 2000 / the Khokholskiy Town Court of the Voronezh Region
52. Natalya Yuryevna Chernyshova
30 May 2000/the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Voronezh
53. Natalya Aleksandrovna Chusova
54. Nina Anatolyevna Shaderkina
55. Valentina Vasilyevna Yakovleva
28 April 2001 / the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Voronezh
56. Svetlana Leonidovna Yakovtseva
9 March 1999/ the Kominternovskiy District Court of Voronezh
57. Nadezhda Gennadyevna Yakushchenko
12 April 2000/ the Kominternovskiy District Court of Voronezh
58. Emma Ivanovna Yakushchenko
13 April 2000/ the Kominternovskiy District Court of Voronezh
CLAIMS FOR DAMAGE (RUR)
62,865.95
309,205.17
2,517.64
289,503.68
2,216.55
661,240.02
5. Tamara Yakovlevna Buneyeva
203,001.76
6. Nadezhda Vasilyevna Buneyeva
245,953.66
7. Svetlana Yakovlevna Butkova
292,639.85
8. Nina Yevgenyevna Bykova
278,481.28
9. Tatyana Nikolayevna Garmysheva
118,682.79
10. Natalya Viktorovna Gladysheva
283,393.7
11. Marina Vasilyevna Gunkina
207,882.42
1,769.19
12. Olga Gennadyevna Dvoretskaya
128,708.93
13. Lyudmila Pavlovna Zhidkova
545,437.19
14. Raisa Aleksandrovna Izmaylova
216,922.49
15. Lyubov Alekseyevna Karabutova
281,795.51
2,006.08
16. Svetlana Leonidovna Kozhokina
285,847.06
17. Lyudmila Pavlovna Kopylova
233,794.43
18. Tamara Semenovna Kuznetsova
353,814.42
19. Larisa Vasilyevna Maltseva
367,010.89
20. Larisa Arkadyevna Milyayeva
161,358.24
21. Lidiya Viktorovna Nemtsova
175,042.26
22. Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Neupokoyeva
204,258.86
23. Yelena Viktorovna Pavlova
24. Svetlana Grigoryevna Polishchuk
246,592.75
25. Tatyana Mikhaylovna Poritskaya
257,161.79
26. Mariya Sergeyevna Reshetnikova
450,084.87
27. Irina Yegorovna Roshchupkina
281,716.58
28. Nadezhda Vasilyevna Rychkova
99,257.33
29. Galina Mikhaylovna Ryazantseva
351,451.5
30. Galina Gennadyevna Sanina
244,478.56
31. Lyudmila Alekseyevna Semchenko
884,732.53
32. Antonina Viktorovna Sergeyeva
274,509.26
33. Vera Mitrofanovna Serikova
125,865.52
34. Tatyana Ivanovna Sirotenko
911,780.86
35. Aleftina Aleksandrovna Skomorokhova
424,462.36
36. Natalya Valeryanovna Solovyeva
870,109.98
6,474.68
37. Vladimir Yuzikovich Talko
110,894.09
38. Nina Ivanovna Tolkacheva
312,801.4
3,197.81
39. Vera Yefimovna Trukhacheva
203,889.92
40. Yelena Nikolayevna Chernikova
93,863.31
41. Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Chernykh
230,067.33
42. Valentina Vasilyevna Yakovleva
241,280.7
43. Svetlana Leonidovna Yakovtseva
228,458.16
44. Nadezhda Gennadyevna Yakushchenko
97,186.72
45. Emma Ivanovna Yakushchenko
289,587.76
ALEKHINA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT