SECOND SECTION
CASE OF GRAŽULEVIČIŪTĖ v. LITHUANIA
(Application no. 53176/17)
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
Art 6 § 1 (civil) • Fair hearing • Failure of Supreme Administrative Court to respect res judicata effect of a final court decision annulling the applicant’s suspension as a clinical researcher • Reassessment of same factual circumstances without reopening the first set of court proceedings, and rendering the first set largely devoid of any legal effect
 
STRASBOURG
14 December 2021
 
FINAL
 
14/03/2022
 
This judgment has become final under Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Gražulevičiūtė v. Lithuania,
The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:
 Jon Fridrik Kjølbro, President,
 Marko Bošnjak,
 Aleš Pejchal,
 Egidijus Kūris,
 Branko Lubarda,
 Pauliine Koskelo,
 Saadet Yüksel, judges,
and Stanley Naismith, Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application (no. 53176/17) against the Republic of Lithuania lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by a Lithuanian national, Ms Edita Gražulevičiūtė (“the applicant”), on 21 July 2017;
the decision to give notice to the Lithuanian Government (“the Government”) of the complaints concerning the right to a fair hearing, the right to respect for private life, and the right to an effective domestic remedy, and to declare inadmissible the remainder of the application;
the parties’ observations;
Having deliberated in private on 9 November 2021,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
INTRODUCTION
1. The applicant is a doctor and a clinical researcher. After one of her patient’s died, she was suspended. The applicant complains that the final court decision, by which she was exculpated, was overturned, in breach of the principle of res judicata and Article 6 § 1 of the Convention. She also complains that she was not compensated for the damage sustained due to her suspension, in breach of Article 8. THE FACTS
2. The applicant was born in 1971 and lives in Vilnius. She was represented by Ms L. Meškauskienė, a lawyer practising in Vilnius. 3. The Government were represented by their Acting Agent, Ms L. Urbaitė. 4. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. 5. The applicant is a rheumatologist and has been working in that capacity since 2004. According to what appears to be an extract from a tax declaration provided by the applicant, she was working as a clinical researcher (tyrėja) from 12 November 2004. According to another document issued by a private company, the Centre for Clinical and Basic Research, the applicant worked for that company from May 2007 to July 2011 as a “consulting doctor”. The applicant’s work as a clinical researcher and her suspension
6. In 2011, the applicant was carrying out several clinical trials as a clinical researcher in a team with other researchers. At a certain point, she was on maternity leave. One of the trials concerned a drug, tocilizumab, and in the course that trial, on 14 April 2011 a patient, V.S., died. On 27 September 2011, V.S.’s daughters asked the State Medicines Control Agency (Valstybinė vaistų kontrolės tarnyba – hereinafter “the SMCA”) to investigate whether the applicant had carried out her duties properly during the clinical trial. 7. On 11 October 2011 the head of the SMCA ordered an unscheduled good clinical practice inspection (hereinafter – “the inspection”). 8. The inspection was carried out on 16 December 2011, and certain shortcomings, two of which were considered to be critical (dangerous) (kritiniai (pavojingi)) violations of the Good Clinical Practice Rules were identified (see paragraphs 53 and 54 below): firstly, failure to accept the patient for an unscheduled appointment, and, secondly, failure to report serious side-effects of the medicine which was being tested. Besides that, the inspectors also found ten significant (reikšmingi) and six minor (nereikšmingi) violations of those rules. The inspectors further concluded that the researchers’ actions had possibly caused damage to the patient V.S.’s health, leading to her death. According to the inspectors, during the trial the welfare of V.S. had not been guaranteed, thus breaching her rights. The inspectors recommended that the measures set out in point 78 of the Description of Control Procedure (see paragraph 54 below) should be imposed on the principal researcher, A.V., and on the applicant. 9. By order (įsakymas) no. 1A-29 of 10 January 2012 of the head of the SMCA, the applicant and A.V. were suspended (nušalinti) from the clinical trial of tocilizumab being carried out at the Santariškės Clinics of Vilnius University Hospital (hereinafter – the first clinical trial). They were prohibited from taking up new clinical trials. That order was to be made public on the SMCA website. 10. By order (įsakymas) no. 1A-45 of 12 January 2012 of the head of the SMCA, the applicant, as the principal researcher (she had been granted such status by the SMCA on 25 July 2011), was suspended from the clinical trial of tocilizumab carried out in the Vilnius Region Central Polyclinic (Vilniaus rajono centrinė poliklinika, hereinafter – the second clinical trial). The head of the SMCA himself annulled the latter order on 29 May 2012. 11. On 27 August 2011 the authorities started a pre-trial investigation into the circumstances of V.S.’s death. A forensic examination was ordered. On 11 October 2012 the experts produced report no. DM 6 (76)/13 (01), which stated that V.S. had died of “sepsis which [had] developed as fast as lighting” (žaibiškai išsivystęs sepsis), and not because of the applicant’s actions. The report also stated that sepsis could develop whether taking tocilizumab or not. It was also noted that, once she had been informed of the deterioration of V.S.’s state of health, the applicant, suspecting that such deterioration did not have rheumatologic causes, but instead was a result of other medical issues (complications) such as torn tendons or an infection, had advised V.S. to contact a traumatology specialist. Administrative court proceedings regarding the applicant’s suspension as a researcher
12. On an unknown date, the applicant challenged the suspension decisions (see paragraphs 9 and 10 above). She argued, among other things, that when reaching their conclusion the SMCA inspectors had not properly evaluated all the information and that therefore the suspension decisions had been unlawful and unfounded. Regarding the facts surrounding V.S.’s death, the applicant argued that legal regulation did not provide for an obligation to organise an unscheduled appointment for diagnosis [at the patient’s house] if the patient refused to come in to a medical institution. The applicant stated that, having learned by telephone of the deterioration of V.S.’s state of health on 11 April 2011, she had suspected complications. Having consulted several other doctors, the applicant had recommended that V.S. come immediately to the hospital, which she had failed to do. As a result, examining V.S. in a timely manner had become impossible, which had eventually resulted in her death. 13. In its reply to the applicant’s action, the SMCA argued that the information established in the inspection report had been objective. The SMCA also pointed out that the orders to suspend the applicant had been issued “only because” two critical (dangerous) violations of the Good Clinical Practice Rules (see paragraph 53 below) had been established, and that therefore only those two violations of the rules were pertinent to the court proceedings. Any other – significant or minor – violations had not been the basis for the orders to suspend the applicant. 14. On 6 December 2013 the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court fully allowed the applicant’s claim. At the outset, the court clarified that, since the administrative courts examine disputes regarding the actions or decisions which have an impact on the claimant’s rights or obligations, the inspection report, and the circumstances established in that report (see paragraph 8 above), as such, had no consequences for the applicant, which meant that that report could not be challenged in court. In other words, only the orders to suspend her had affected her rights or obligations, and not the inspection report. That being so, the court would only issue a verdict regarding the circumstances mentioned in the inspection report that had led to the orders to suspend the applicant. Given that the applicant’s suspension and removal from clinical trials had been based on the two critical (dangerous) violations of the Good Clinical Practice Rules (see paragraph 8 above), the court decided to limit its assessment to those aspects. 15. As to the circumstances leading to V.S.’s death, the court established that before the clinical trial V.S. had signed an agreement to participate in the clinical trial and had been informed whom to contact in the event of complications. That agreement had not indicated the applicant’s contact details, only the details of doctor J.R. and those of the principal researcher, A.V. Although V.S.’s daughters had complained of the actions of the applicant, they had not been able to explain why V.S. had failed to contact the other researchers (J.R. or A.V.). The court also noted that even though V.S. had been obliged to inform the researchers of any possible deterioration of her health, once her state of health had started worsening on 9 April 2011, V.S. had instead contacted an outside doctor she had “personally known” (asmeniškai pažįstamo gydytojo), had taken medication prescribed by the latter doctor and had also taken methadone. She had contacted the applicant only several days later. 16. The court had regard to the expert medical report obtained in the criminal proceedings, where it had been found that V.S. had died because of acute sepsis and not because of the applicant’s actions (see paragraph 11 above). The court also questioned as a witness doctor J.R., who had taken part in the same clinical trial and who had been named therein as one of the contact persons in the event of complications. J.R. confirmed that she had heard the telephone conversation between V.S. and the applicant on 12 April 2011, during which the applicant “had insisted” (primygtinai liepė) that V.S. go to hospital to see a traumatology specialist. J.R. stated that when V.S. had ultimately been taken to hospital by ambulance on 13 April 2011, J.R. had examined V.S. together with the applicant and they had seen that V.S.’s leg was dark grey and the complication was at least four days old. The court established that both the applicant and J.R. had examined V.S., and thus one of the conclusions of the inspection held against the applicant – that she had not participated in that examination – was unfounded. 17. The court also found that the inspectors had based their findings on the explanations given by V.S.’s daughters, by presuming that the applicant could have intentionally filled in the medical and other records incorrectly in order to avoid trouble. However, such a conclusion lacked a factual basis and was based only on the subjective view of the daughters, in their testimony given after V.S.’s death, possibly in order to substantiate their claims against the applicant. 18. Contrary to what had been suggested by V.S.’s daughters, the fact that the applicant had been on maternity leave (vaiko priežiūros atostogos) (see paragraph 6 above) was not important because the applicant had not been the only researcher taking part in that clinical trial. Another doctor, J.R., had also taken part with the same responsibilities as the applicant. The court also specifically held that the applicant had not been an “irreplaceable person” during that clinical trial, and that her being on maternity leave, as such, had not complicated the situation and had not directly influenced the carrying out of the clinical trial. 19. In the light of the above, the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court held that the inspectors’ conclusions as regards the breach of the Good Clinical Practice Rules, which had been qualified as inappropriate organisation of unscheduled appointments, had been incorrect and had contradicted the factual circumstances. 20. The court then turned to the second critical (dangerous) violation of the Good Clinical Practice Rules which had been attributed to the applicant’s actions, namely her alleged failure to inform, within twenty-four hours, the sponsor of the clinical trial (užsakovas) of any “serious side‑effects” (sunkus nepageidaujamas reiškinys) which had resulted in death or disability or had had other serious consequences. Having examined the medical records and also having questioned an expert in clinical trials, the court established that the applicant had not breached this requirement to report side-effects, since at first V.S. had experienced pain in her ankle, which was not a serious side-effect of the medication being trialled. The applicant had also immediately informed the sponsor when it had been suspected that V.S. had septic arthritis. 21. The court thus held that the conclusions reached by the inspectors had been based on their subjective assessment of circumstances, without giving reasons as to why they had rejected the applicant’s arguments. For the court, there was no evidence to help to reach a categorical conclusion that the arguments of the applicant had been unfounded. Accordingly, the court concluded that the applicant’s actions – reporting negative side‑effects – had been unjustifiably qualified as a critical (dangerous) violation. 22. Given its finding that the inspectors had incorrectly concluded that the applicant had committed two critical (dangerous) violations, the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court held that restrictions on the applicant’s working as a researcher had been imposed “unjustly” (neteisingai). Thus, the court annulled the orders to suspend the applicant from the clinical trials and not to take part in new ones (see paragraphs 9 and 10 above). 23. This decision was not appealed against and became final on 21 December 2013. Administrative court proceedings in respect of damage sustained owing to suspension
24. The applicant afterwards lodged a claim against the State, represented by the SMCA, claiming pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage which she argued she had sustained owing to her suspension from the clinical trials. The applicant submitted, among other things, that she had been working as a clinical researcher as of 12 November 2004. She argued that damage had been caused to her by the unlawful actions of the SMCA in ordering her suspension, a suspension which had been annulled by the court in the earlier set of proceedings (see paragraphs 12-23 above). The applicant argued that, had she not been suspended, she would have received income from the first and the second trials. The applicant underscored the “particularly high requirements of care and professionalism” (ypač aukšti atidumo ir rūpestingumo reikalavimai) applicable to the medical profession and submitted that any doubts about her competence had tarnished her reputation, causing her great stress. The applicant specified that the first clinical trial had taken place from 11 October 2010 to 19 August 2013. Responding to the applicant’s claim, the SMCA referred to the two critical violations, as established by the inspectors: obligatory medical assistance had not been provided to V.S., in breach of clinical trial protocol and relevant regulations, and systemic failures of reporting serious side-effects had damaged the integrity of the data of the critical trial. Those two critical violations had been the basis for the applicant’s suspension by the SMCA, and there was nothing unlawful in the SMCA taking such a measure. 25. On 4 November 2015 the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court allowed the applicant’s claim in part. The court firstly noted that in her claim the applicant had claimed as pecuniary damage the income which she would have received if the SMCA had not adopted the orders of 10 and 12 January 2012 by which she had been suspended from conducting the first and the second clinical trials. The court also referred to Article 6.249 § 1 of the Civil Code, regarding the notion of damage, and Articles 6.246 and 6.271 thereof (see paragraph 56 below), which provided that one of the necessary conditions for civil liability was unlawful actions. 26. The court also pointed out that, under Article 58 § 2 of the Law on Administrative Proceedings (see paragraph 55 below), facts which had been established in one administrative case by a court decision which had come into effect did not need to be proven again in other administrative cases where the same parties were taking part. The court then referred to the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court’s decision of 6 December 2013 regarding the dispute between the applicant and the SMCA, which had not been appealed against and which had entered into force (see paragraphs 14‑23 above). The court pointed out that in the instant (second) set of proceedings “essentially the same parties [had been] taking part”, and accordingly there was no need to prove again the conditions for the public liability (viešosios atsakomybės sąlygos) in respect of the applicant. 27. Regarding the first clinical trial, the court established that on 17 August 2010 an agreement had been concluded whereby concrete amounts to be paid for one person for a complete trial had been fixed. The court noted that the applicant had de facto carried out that clinical trial until she had been suspended from it by the SMCA order of 10 January 2012, which had later had been annulled by the administrative court. Given that one of the patients had died, the applicant had continued the clinical trial with the remaining five patients. On the basis of the case-file material the court also established that the first clinical trial had been completed and documented as planned. There was no information in the file which could raise doubts as to whether the clinical trial would not have taken place because of the applicant’s actions. Moreover, contrary to what had been suggested by the defendant in those court proceedings, medical records showed that it had been precisely the applicant who had carried out the clinical trials with those five patients and that the clinical trials had been completed in respect of them. 28. For the court, it had to be underscored that, as had been mentioned in the court decision of 6 December 2013, the inspectors’ conclusions regarding the violations of the Good Clinical Practice Rules had been erroneous, and that therefore the SMCA order of 10 January 2012 to suspend the applicant from the first trial had been annulled. In the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court’s view, this meant that the order of the SMCA removing the applicant from the first clinical trial had caused the applicant pecuniary damage. 29. Lastly, the administrative court referred to the Supreme Court’s ruling of 13 November 2006 in civil case no. 3K-3-585/2006, where it had held that the amount of income not received had to be proven by the plaintiff, and that amount had to be real. When deciding on whether the unreceived income could be seen as pecuniary damage it was necessary to have regard to whether that income had been planned, whether the plaintiff could reasonably have expected to receive it, and whether he or she had not received it because of unlawful actions on the part of the defendant. In the instant case, had the applicant not been suspended from conducting the first clinical trial for the remaining five patients, she would have received 6,128 euros (EUR), a sum which had been calculated in advance in the contract with the pharmaceutical company and which the applicant had not received because of the “unlawful actions” (neteisėti veiksmai) of the SMCA. The court thus awarded the applicant the sum of EUR 6,128 for pecuniary damage. 30. Regarding the second clinical trial, the court noted that on 26 August 2011 the applicant had concluded a clinical trial contract, with her as the principal researcher, with a pharmaceutical company. Later on, she had been suspended from conducting that trial by the decision of 12 January 2012 (see paragraph 10 above). That being so, the court also noted that, as the applicant herself had confirmed in the courtroom, she had refused to take part in that second clinical trial, and therefore that trial had not taken place in the Vilnius Region Central Polyclinic. Although at the court hearing the applicant had argued that she had withdrawn from the second clinical trial due to the psychological stress she had experienced due to the inspection of the first clinical trial, there was no evidence to substantiate that. It was also worth noting that the pharmaceutical company had informed the SMCA that no patients had taken part in or had even been chosen for the second clinical trial. It followed that the applicant’s claim regarding the pecuniary damage sustained in connection with the second clinical trial had to be dismissed. 31. Lastly, as regards non-pecuniary damage, the court noted the applicant’s complaint that she had been suspended from conducting the first clinical trial and could not take up researcher’s activity for nearly two years, between 10 January 2012 and 6 December 2013 (see paragraphs 9 and 23 above), and that any doubts as to her competence as a medical professional had been damaging to her reputation, also given the fact that information about her suspension and about critical (dangerous) violations of the Good Clinical Practice Rules had been made public on the SMCA’s website. The court reiterated that the decision of 10 January 2012 for the applicant’s suspension had been annulled as unlawful. The court considered that the nearly two years of suspension from clinical trials objectively could have caused the applicant a “negative experience” (neigiami išgyvenimai), and decided to award her EUR 200 in compensation. 32. The applicant appealed, asking to be awarded pecuniary damage in connection with the second clinical trial. She also contested that the claim for non-pecuniary damage had not been fully granted. The SMCA also appealed, arguing that the applicant had failed to substantiate her claim for pecuniary damage as regards the first clinical trial and was not entitled to have that claim granted. The SMCA further submitted that the applicant should not be granted a monetary award as compensation for non-pecuniary damage. The SMCA also argued that, within the second set of court proceedings, the first instance court had not assessed the factual and legal aspects of the SMCA’s actions, which were relevant for the question of the State’s tortious liability. In the view of the SMCA, the first instance court had failed to take into account that the head of the SMCA had issued the orders to suspend the applicant on the basis of the inspection conclusions showing the presence of two critical violations – damage to a patient’s health and damage to the integrity of the trial data. The SMCA also argued that when taking action against the applicant – adopting the decisions to suspend her – it had sought to protect the health of those taking part in the clinical trials. 33. By a ruling of 30 January 2017, in written proceedings, the Supreme Administrative Court allowed the SMCA’s appeal, rejected the civil claim for damages on the part of the applicant and dismissed her appeal. 34. At the outset, the Supreme Administrative Court referred to its consistent case-law in cases concerning liability for damage caused by State institutions’ unlawful actions (Article 15 § 1 (3) of the Law on Administrative Proceedings, see paragraph 55 below) to the effect that the annulment of an administrative decision was, as such, not a basis to hold that the actions of a State institution had been unlawful and that therefore civil liability under Article 6.271 of the Civil Code arose. The court also pointed out that, when deciding the question of a State institution’s civil liability, Article 6.271 § 4 of the Civil Code had to be applied as this was the “special norm” (specialioji norma), as opposed to the general norm set out in the first paragraph of that Article (see paragraph 56 below). 35. The Supreme Administrative Court held that, in accordance with the principle of res judicata, factual and legal elements established in another court decision had to be accepted, and parties to the proceedings or another interested party could rely on them. That notwithstanding, this did not mean that in cases concerning the issue of damages the court had no right to verify supposedly unlawful actions in the context of tortious liability on the part of the State. For the Supreme Administrative Court, legal assessment (teisinis vertinimas) of the circumstances established by a court decision was not to be treated as denial of the binding and res judicata value of that decision. Moreover, disputes in administrative cases regarding the annulment of administrative decisions differed from disputes regarding compensation for damage caused by unlawful actions on the part of the State (the Supreme Administrative Court referred to its earlier ruling of 14 July 2011 in case no. A502-3034/2011, decided by an enlarged chamber composition). Likewise, the “verification” (patikra) by the court of purportedly unlawful actions in the context of tortious liability was an assessment of the respective factual and legal elements within the meaning of Article 6.271 of the Civil Code, and such verification in the case for the compensation of damage could be performed without questioning the established facts and their assessment in another (previous) case (the Supreme Administrative Court referred to the same ruling, and to its ruling of 8 October 2015 in case no. A3155-624/2015, also decided by an enlarged chamber composition). The Supreme Administrative Court considered that the first-instance court had failed to take all this case-law into account when examining the applicant’s claim for damages (see paragraphs 25-31 above), and thus had adopted an unreasoned and unlawful decision. 36. Next, the Supreme Administrative Court pointed out that when examining whether there had been civil liability on the part of the State in the instant case, not only did domestic legal regulations have to be taken into account, but also international and European Union law. Firstly, it cited the principle that a person’s interests and well-being are more important than society’s and science’s interests. It also referred in this connection to the general rule that scientific research was performed freely, taking into account legal rules protecting human rights, set out, respectively, in Articles 2 and 15 of the Oviedo Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (see paragraph 48 below). The court pointed out that the principle enunciated in Article 2 of that Convention had been reflected in Article 5 § 1 of the Law on Ethics of Biomedical Research (see paragraph 51 below) and point 2.3 of the Good Clinical Practice Rules (see paragraph 53 below). 37. Secondly, at the material time, provisions of Directive 2001/20/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 April 2001 (hereinafter “the Directive”, see paragraph 49 below) had applied and had been relevant. In Lithuania, the Directive was implemented by the Law on Ethics of Biomedical Research (see paragraph 51 below), the Law on Pharmacy (see paragraph 52 below) and other relevant legal acts. The Directive established the principle of protection of individuals participating in clinical trials (point 2 of its preamble). Likewise, the Directive set out “core provisions” (esminės nuostatos), including that a clinical trial once commenced should be verified and supervised, and its compliance with the Good Clinical Practice standards should be monitored, and that, should objective evidence be detected, the Member States had a right to suspend it or to discontinue it (point 18 of the preamble and Article 12 of the Directive, see paragraph 49 below). Lastly, a clinical trial could not be opened until the committee on ethics agreed. In Lithuania, the relevant authorities for the approval of clinical trials were the SMCA and the Bioethics Committee (Article 18 § 4 of the Law on Pharmacy, see paragraph 52 below). 38. In the present case, the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court had annulled the relevant part of the order concerning the applicant because it had assessed the conclusions of the investigation against her as insufficient to substantiate the two critical (dangerous) violations of the Good Clinical Practice Rules and held that too much weight had been given to the subjective explanations given by V.S.’s daughters (see paragraph 17 above). For the Supreme Administrative Court, it was important to establish whether agreements by the authorities to carry out two clinical trials had been in accordance with the law. 39. The Supreme Administrative Court held that the findings which the first-instance court had reached within the first set of administrative court proceedings, which had led to the annulment of the decision of 10 January 2012, “in themselves [had] not constitute[d] a basis” (savaime nėra pagrindas) to rule that the SMCA’s actions had been unlawful within the meaning of Article 6.271 of the Civil Code. For the purpose of Article 6.271 § 4 of that Code, to assess possible tortious liability on the part of the State, it was necessary to have a “broader legal assessment of the circumstances pertinent to the case and in a broader legal viewpoint” (turi būti atliktas platesnis bylai aktualių aplinkybių teisinis vertinimas platesniu teisiniu aspektu). When examining the claim for damages, it had to be verified whether the actions of the SMCA when ordering the inspection as well as how that inspection had been carried out had complied with the letter of the law: whether the SMCA and its employers had acted in a manner compliant with the law, since if essential violations of the rules applicable to such an inspection were found, this could be the basis to hold that the individual administrative decision adopted on the basis of such a conclusion had resulted in an unlawful action within the meaning of Article 6.271 of the Civil Code. For the Supreme Administrative Court, when examining whether there was tortious liability on the part of the State, the relevant court also had to examine whether when adopting the decision to suspend the applicant the SMCA had acted as the law required it to act as regards firstly the protection of individuals taking part in the clinical trial, and secondly checks on the reliability of the data received during the clinical trial. 40. Over several pages of its decision the Supreme Administrative Court then extensively analysed the SMCA’s actions against the background of existing legal regulations, in particular the Good Clinical Practice Rules. Eventually, it reached the conclusion that, within the meaning of Article 6.271 § 4 of the Civil Code, the SMCA had acted within its competence, and as it was required to act under the law. 41. In the light of the aforementioned legal regulations and the factual circumstances of the case, the Supreme Administrative Court shared the SMCA’s view that that agency, when applying the measure prescribed in point 78.1 of the Description of Control Procedure to the applicant, and also on the basis of the inspectors’ conclusion, had acted within the bounds of its competence with aims prescribed by law – to prevent violations of individuals’ rights, and to guarantee their safety and well-being, as well as to guarantee that the clinical trial would be performed in accordance with the Good Clinical Practice Rules and other legal acts, and also so that the data received during clinical trials would be reliable and of quality. For the Supreme Administrative Court, there was no reason to disagree with such arguments of the SMCA. 42. The Supreme Administrative Court also noted that the relevant legal acts did not grant the head of the SMCA discretion to “revise” (revizuoti) the inspectors’ conclusions and to “correct them” (atitinkamai jas koreguoti). Likewise, when performing his function, the head of the SMCA had no right to disregard those conclusions. The inspectors’ conclusions, set out in the relevant report (see paragraph 8 above), thus amounted to a factual basis by which measures would be applied to the clinical researcher. The lawfulness and reasonableness of the inspectors’ conclusions could be verified only “in court” (tik teismine tvarka) by challenging a decision imposing measures on a researcher. 43. The Supreme Administrative Court also agreed with the defendant’s position that, after the inspectors’ conclusions unfavourable to the applicant had been received and specified – that she had committed two critical (dangerous) violations – the head of the SMCA could only adopt the decision to suspend her. The mere fact that the order for the applicant’s suspension had later been annulled by the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court did not mean that the SMCA’s actions, when adopting that order, had been unlawful within the meaning of Article 6.271 of the Civil Code. It had to be emphasised that during the first set of court proceedings the order of 10 January 2012 in respect of the applicant had been annulled not because the court had established any of the absolute grounds for annulment of that order, as set out in Article 89 of the Code of Administrative Procedure (see paragraph 55 below), but because that court had disagreed with the inspectors’ reasoning that the applicant had committed two critical (dangerous) violations of the Good Clinical Practice Rules. This meant that the order of 10 January 2012 regarding the applicant’s suspension had not been unlawful ab initio. 44. The Supreme Administrative Court also re-examined the factual circumstances regarding the two critical (dangerous) violations of the Good Clinical Practice Rules that the inspection had attributed to the applicant. Regarding the first critical violation, the Supreme Administrative Court retraced the sequence of events leading to S.V.’s death, and how those events had been reflected in the inspection report. The court found that data established by the inspection had not been refuted by any other information in the case file, and that that data showed that the applicant had not guaranteed that when side-effects had occurred on 11 April 2011 V.S. would receive proper medical care. The applicant had also not taken effective measures to ensure that unscheduled medical appointments would take place, as she had been required to do by the Good Clinical Practice Rules. 45. In its reasoning the Supreme Administrative Court also referred to the addendum to the agreement to take part in the clinical trial, signed by both V.S. and the applicant on 6 April 2011, which partly amended the initial agreement to take part in the clinical trial, concluded on 9 November 2010. The addendum warned of a higher possible risk of serious, and sometimes deadly, infection from the medication tested during that clinical trial. For the Supreme Administrative Court, that addendum had imposed on the applicant, as a researcher, an “increased duty of care” (reikalavo iš tyrėjo padidinto budrumo) to ensure that the rights and well-being of the patients taking part in the clinical trial, including V.S., remained protected. The Supreme Administrative Court thus considered that the SMCA had acted within its competence when imposing measures on the applicant. 46. Regarding the second critical (dangerous) violation of the Good Clinical Practice Rules, concerning reporting of serious side-effects (see paragraph 8 above), the Supreme Administrative Court also held that “there were data in the case file” to the effect that during the inspection it had been established that the applicant had not taken measures to guarantee the “quality, completeness and reliability” of the clinical trial documents (dokumentų kokybę, pilnumą ir patikimumą). The Supreme Administrative Court also considered that, under point 78.1 of the Description of Control Procedure, the first critical (dangerous) violation of Good Clinical Practice Rules alone had been sufficient to suspend the applicant, and that the second critical violation established by the inspection had essentially been related to that first violation, and had had no impact on the adoption of the decision to suspend the applicant. 47. In the light of the foregoing, the Supreme Administrative Court concluded that the SMCA, when adopting order no. 1A-29 within the meaning of Article 6.271 § 4 of the Civil Code, had acted in accordance with Article 18 § 1 of the Law on Pharmacy, and points 78, 79 and 791 of the Description of Control Procedure (see paragraph 54 below), as it had been seeking to protect the rights and well-being of individuals taking part in clinical trials, as well as seeking that the data gathered during clinical trials would be reliable and of quality. Contrary to what had been found by the first-instance court (see paragraphs 25-31 above), there was no basis on which to find that the SMCA had acted improperly, which also meant that the State could not be held civilly liable under Article 6.271 of the Civil Code, since there had been no unlawful actions on the part of the SMCA – an element indispensable for such a finding. RELEVANT LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND PRACTICE
Council of Europe instruments and European Union Law
48. The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (known as the Oviedo Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine), which entered into force in respect of Lithuania on 1 February 2003, in so far as relevant, reads as follows:
Article 2 – Primacy of the human being
“The interests and welfare of the human being shall prevail over the sole interest of society or science.”
Article 15 – General rule
“Scientific research in the field of biology and medicine shall be carried out freely, subject to the provisions of this Convention and the other legal provisions ensuring the protection of the human being.”
49. Directive 2001/20/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 April 2001, on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to the implementation of good clinical practice in the conduct of clinical trials on medicinal products for human use, in so far as relevant, reads as follows:
“Whereas:
... (2) The accepted basis for the conduct of clinical trials in humans is founded in the protection of human rights and the dignity of the human being with regard to the application of biology and medicine ...
... (18) It is also necessary to make provision for the monitoring of adverse reactions occurring in clinical trials ... in order to ensure the immediate cessation of any clinical trial in which there is an unacceptable level of risk ...”
Article 3
Protection of clinical trial subjects
“1. This Directive shall apply without prejudice to the national provisions on the protection of clinical trial subjects if they are more comprehensive than the provisions of this Directive ... 2. A clinical trial may be undertaken only if, in particular:
(a) the foreseeable risks and inconveniences have been weighed against the anticipated benefit for the individual trial subject and other present and future patients. A clinical trial may be initiated only if the Ethics Committee and/or the competent authority comes to the conclusion that the anticipated therapeutic and public health benefits justify the risks and may be continued only if compliance with this requirement is permanently monitored;
 (b) the trial subject ... has had the opportunity, in a prior interview with the investigator or a member of the investigating team, to understand the objectives, risks and inconveniences of the trial, and the conditions under which it is to be conducted and has also been informed of his right to withdraw from the trial at any time;
(c) the rights of the subject to physical ... integrity ... are safeguarded;
(d) the trial subject ... has given his written consent after being informed of the nature, significance, implications and risks of the clinical trial ...;
... 3. The medical care given to, and medical decisions made on behalf of, subjects shall be the responsibility of an appropriately qualified doctor ... 4. The subject shall be provided with a contact point where he may obtain further information.”
Article 12
Suspension of the trial or infringements
“1. Where a Member State has objective grounds for considering that the conditions in the request for authorisation ... are no longer met or has information raising doubts about the safety or scientific validity of the clinical trial, it may suspend or prohibit the clinical trial and shall notify the sponsor thereof. ... 2. Where a competent authority has objective grounds for considering that the sponsor or the investigator or any other person involved in the conduct of the trial no longer meets the obligations laid down, it shall forthwith inform him thereof, indicating the course of action which he must take to remedy this state of affairs. The competent authority concerned shall forthwith inform the Ethics Committee, the other competent authorities and the Commission of this course of action.”
Domestic law and practiceThe Constitution and law related to medical research and pharmacy

50. The Constitution reads:
Article 19
“The right to life of a human being shall be protected by law.”
Article 21
“... No one may be subjected to scientific or medical experimentation without his knowledge and free consent.”
Article 30
“A person whose constitutional rights or freedoms are violated shall have the right to apply to court. Compensation for material and moral [i.e. non-pecuniary] damage inflicted upon a person shall be established by law.”
Article 48
“Everyone may freely choose a job or business, and shall have the right to have proper, safe, and healthy conditions at work, as well as to receive fair pay for work and social security in the event of unemployment.”
Article 53
“The State shall take care of the health of people and shall guarantee medical aid and services for a person in the event of sickness...”
51. The Law on Ethics of Biomedical Research (Biomedicininių tyrimų etikos įstatymas), as in force at the material time, insofar as relevant read:
Article 5. Ethical requirements for biomedical research
“1. Biomedical research must be conducted according to the principle that the interests of the human being prevail over the interests of society and science ...”
52. The Law on Pharmacy (Farmacijos įstatymas), as in force at the material time, insofar as relevant read:
Article 18. Requirements for Clinical Trials of a Medicinal Product
“1. Clinical trials of a medicinal product shall be regulated by the legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania. Compliance ... shall be ensured by the State Medicines Control Agency and other institutions authorised under the law. 2. The qualifications of the principal researcher must correspond to the qualifications requirements established by the Minister of Health. 3. All clinical trials of medicinal products shall be designed, conducted, registered and reported on in accordance with the Good Clinical Practice [Rules] approved by the Minister of Health. 4. Clinical trials of a medicinal product may be conducted only with the approval of the Lithuanian Bioethics Committee and the authorisation of the State Medicines Control Agency.
... 11. If the State Medicines Control Agency or the Lithuanian Bioethics Committee ... has information raising doubts about the safety or scientific validity of a clinical trial, they may refuse to issue the authorisation to conduct the clinical trial of the medicinal product or the certificate of approval and shall notify the sponsor thereof.
... 14. The State Medicines Control Agency may take a decision to suspend or terminate in the country clinical trials of a medicinal product when it is already being conducted, if it has reasonable grounds to decide that the conditions of the authorisation are not being met or if there are doubts about the safety or scientific validity of the clinical trial, and indicate the reasons of the decision ...”
53. The Good Clinical Practice Rules (Geros klinikinės praktikos taisyklės), approved by the Ministry of Health order no. V-945 on 13 November 2006, read in its relevant parts as follows:
“2.3. The rights, safety and health of the person taking part in the clinical trial prevail over the interests of science and society.
...
3.1.1. The commission of the supervising institution/the independent ethics committee must guarantee that the rights, safety and well-being of the persons taking part in the clinical experiment will be properly protected ...”
54. On 18 July 2011 the Minister of Health, by order no. V-692, approved the Description of Procedure of Agreement to Perform a Clinical Experiment of a Medicinal Product and Issue of Licences to Perform a Clinical Experiment of a Medicinal Product, Carrying Out of Experiments and their Control (Pritarimo atlikti klinikinį vaistinio preparato tyrimą liudijimų ir leidimų atlikti klinikinį vaistinio preparato tyrimą išdavimo, tyrimų atlikimo ir kontrolės tvarkos aprašas; hereinafter – “the Description of Control Procedure”), which at the material time read in its relevant parts as follows:
“77. The Inspectors performing the good clinical practice investigation draw up a report and list the shortcomings they have found and the breaches of the Good Clinical Practice Rules, especially those that could have negative consequences. Groups of possible violations:
77.1. dangerous (critical) violations – conditions, activities or procedures, which breach the rights, safety or are damaging to the health of the patients, data quality and its integrity; dangerous violations could be linked to major deviations from the Good Clinical Practice requirements, poor data quality, absence of primary documents; this group includes fraud;
77.2. significant violations – conditions, activities or procedures that may violate the rights, safety, health of the patient and (or) the data quality and its integrity; these are serious shortcomings that directly violate the requirements of the Good Clinical Practice Rules;
... 78. Having established, during the inspection, dangerous or (and) significant violations of the Good Clinical Practice Rules due to the researcher’s fault, the SMCA shall impose one of the following measures:
78.1. to suspend (nušalinti) the researcher from conducting the clinical trial and to prohibit the researcher from starting new clinical trials until the end of the clinical trials already in progress, and shall publish information about this prohibition, the researcher’s suspension and the dangerous violation of the Good Clinical Practice Rules committed on the Internet page of the SMCA, if during the inspection of an ongoing clinical trial at least one dangerous violation of the Good Clinical Practice Rules has been established ... 79. The measures referred to in point 78 of this Description shall be applied by the SMCA after having coordinated it with the Lithuanian Bioethics Committee. The measures shall be applied following an order of the head of the SMCA ... 791. A researcher to whom the measures provided for in points 78.1 or 78.4 of this Description were imposed for having committed critical violations of the Good Clinical Practice Rules shall immediately be suspended from any other clinical trial conducted by her or him as a principal researcher until the SMCA in accordance with the Rules for Inspection approved by the head of the SMCA has carried out an unscheduled inspection and has assessed compliance with the requirements of the Good Clinical Practice Rules of all the clinical trials conducted by her or him as a principal researcher. ... The suspension of the researcher shall also be discontinued if the SMCA does not carry out the unscheduled inspections within the prescribed period of time ...”
Other relevant law
55. The Law on Administrative Proceedings (Administracinių bylų teisenos įstatymas), as in force at the material time, insofar as relevant read as follows:
Article 15. Cases Assigned to the Competence of the Administrative courts
“1. Administrative courts shall decide cases relating to:
...
3) compensation for damage inflicted by [the State or municipal] institutions’ unlawful actions in the field of public administration (Article 6.271 of the Civil Code) ...”
Article 58. Circumstances or Facts for which Proof is not Necessary
“1. Circumstances recognised by the court as commonly known shall not be required to be proved. 2. Facts established by an effective court decision in another administrative or civil case shall not be required to be proved in other administrative proceedings in which the same persons are participating. ...”
Article 89. Grounds for Annulment of Contested Decisions
“1. A contested decision (or a part thereof) must be annulled if it is:
1) unlawful in essence, that is to say its contents conflict with higher law;
2) unlawful by reason of being adopted by an entity of administration acting outside the remit of its competence;
3) unlawful as it was adopted in violation of the basic procedures, especially the rules which were to ensure objective assessment of all circumstances and validity of the decision. 2. The contested decision (or a part thereof) may also be annulled on other grounds recognised as material by the administrative court.”
Article 92. Legal Consequences of Annulment of the Act
“The annulment of the contested decision shall signify restoration in a certain specific case of the status quo which existed before the making of the contested decision, that is to say the claimant is granted restoration of the infringed rights or lawful interests ...”
56. The Civil Code reads, in its relevant parts, as follows:
Article 6.246. Unlawful actions
“1. Civil liability shall arise from the non-performance of a duty established by law or by contract (unlawful failure to act), or from the performance of actions that are prohibited by law or by contract (unlawful action), or from a violation of the general duty to behave with care.”
Article 6.249. Damage and damages
“1. Damage shall include the amount of the loss or damage of property sustained by a person and the expenses incurred (direct damages) as well as the income of which he has been deprived, i.e. the income he would have received if unlawful actions had not been committed. Damage expressed in monetary terms shall constitute damages. Where the amount of damages cannot be proved by the party with precision, it shall be assessed by a court ...”
Article 6.271. Liability for compensation for damage caused by an unlawful action on the part of public authority institutions
“1. Damage caused by the unlawful action of a public authority institution must be compensated by the State from the resources of the State budget, irrespective of any fault on the part of a particular public servant or other employee of the public authority institution ...
... 4. Civil liability of the State or a municipality subject to this Article shall arise where employees of public authority institutions fail to act in the manner prescribed by law for those institutions and their employees.”
The courts’ practice
57. In a ruling of 19 August 2006 the Constitutional Court held:
“In the course of protection and defence of human rights and freedoms ... particular importance is attributed to the institute of compensation for damage. It is established in Paragraph 2 of Article 30 of the Constitution that compensation for material and moral damage inflicted upon a person shall be established by law. Thus, the necessity to compensate material and moral damage inflicted upon a person is a constitutional principle ... This constitutional principle is inseparable from the principle of justice entrenched in the Constitution: all the necessary legal preconditions must be created by law in order to justly compensate for the inflicted damage. Thus, the Constitution imperatively requires to establish by law such legal regulation that a person who has sustained damage as a result of unlawful actions would be able in all cases to claim just compensation for that damage and to receive that compensation. ... [It] should be emphasised that it does not follow from the Constitution that it is possible by law to establish some exceptions, under which the moral and/or material damage inflicted upon the person is not compensated, for example, because of the reason that it was inflicted by unlawful actions of officials or institutions of the State itself. If the law, let alone another legal act, established such legal regulation whereby the State would fully or partially avoid the duty to justly compensate for material and/or moral damage inflicted by unlawful actions of the State institution or [its] officials, it would mean not only that the constitutional concept of compensation for damage is disregarded and that this is not line with the Constitution (inter alia, Paragraph 2 of Article 30 thereof), but it would also undermine the raison d’être of the State itself as a common good of the whole society.
...
[It] should be noted that, under the Constitution, a person has the right to claim compensation for damage inflicted by unlawful actions of State institutions and officials, also when the case of the corresponding compensation for damage is not specified in any law, while the courts, deciding such cases according to their competence, have the constitutional powers, by applying the Constitution directly (the principles of justice, legal certainty and legal security, proportionality, due process of law, the equality of persons and the protection of legitimate expectations, as well as other provisions of the Constitution), and general principles of law, pursuing, inter alia, the principle of reasonableness etc., to award the corresponding compensation for damage.”
58. Most recently, in a ruling of 19 March 2021, the Constitutional Court reiterated the principle that it did not follow from the Constitution that any kind of exceptions could be established where pecuniary or non‑pecuniary damage caused to a person would not be compensated (on this point, the Constitutional Court referred to its earlier ruling of 19 August 2006, and to its ruling of 13 May 2010). When reiterating that principle, the Constitutional Court also was inspired by the Court’s findings in the judgment of Černius and Rinkevičius v. Lithuania, nos. 73579/17 and 14620/18, 18 February 2020. 59. As referred to by the Government in their observations on the admissibility and merits, by a ruling of 20 December 2018 the Supreme Administrative Court in administrative case no. eA-842-822/2018 examined the question of compensation for non-pecuniary damage lodged by G.R. She had been a prosecutor and had been dismissed from her job on the basis of the Prosecutor General’s conclusion that she had failed to properly perform her duties. Afterwards, G.R. contested her dismissal and in a final ruling adopted in 2014 the Supreme Administrative Court held that whilst she had committed a disciplinary violation, the decision to dismiss her had been too harsh. Instead, she was to be given a reprimand (papeikimas). She was reinstated. In the ruling of 20 December 2018 the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed G.R.’s claim for non-pecuniary damage caused by her dismissal. It reasoned that although the decision to dismiss the applicant from service had been annulled as disproportionate, the conclusion that she had committed a disciplinary violation when carrying out her duties in violation of the norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure remained valid. THE LAW
ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 6 § 1 OF THE CONVENTION
60. The applicant alleged, in particular, that the Supreme Administrative Court had failed to respect the res judicata effect of an earlier court decision in which the SMCA orders for her suspension as a clinical researcher had been annulled as unlawful. She relied on Article 6 § 1 of the Convention
“In the determination of his civil rights and obligations ... everyone is entitled to a fair ... hearing ... by [a] ... tribunal ...”
Admissibility
61. The Court notes that this complaint is neither manifestly ill-founded nor inadmissible on any other grounds listed in Article 35 of the Convention. It must therefore be declared admissible. MeritsThe submissions by the parties

(a)   The applicant
62. The applicant noted that the right to a court comprised the requirement that in cases where a final court decision had been reached, it could not be questioned (she referred to Esertas v. Lithuania, no. 50208/06, § 20, 31 May 2012; Brumărescu v. Romania [GC], no. 28342/95, § 61, ECHR 1999‑VII; and Kehaya and Others v. Bulgaria, nos. 47797/99 and 68698/01, § 61, 12 January 2006). In her case, however, the Supreme Administrative Court had departed from the principles of legal certainty and res judicata, since the facts which had already been established within the first set of court proceedings concerning the annulment of the SMCA orders for her suspension had been disregarded in the second set of court proceedings concerning the claim for damages. She had thus found herself in a situation where the facts concerning the same parties, which had been established in the first set of court proceedings, had been “ignored” in the second set of court proceedings between the same parties. The applicant also complained of the fact that despite the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court’s findings in the first set of proceedings that the SMCA had unlawfully suspended the applicant from two clinical trials and that the restrictions on her working as a clinical researcher had been applied unreasonably, the Supreme Administrative Court, denying the principle of legal certainty, had reached the opposite conclusion within the second set of court proceedings. The applicant also considered that it had been unfair to place the burden of the SMCA – a State institution – on her, by refusing to compensate her losses which would not have occurred if the unlawful orders to suspend her had not been adopted. 63. The applicant pointed out that if the principle of legal certainty and res judicata of the court decision reached within the first set of court proceedings had been properly respected by the domestic courts, then the facts established within the case for the annulment of the administrative decisions, that is to say facts with binding value within the meaning of Article 58 § 2 of the Code of Administrative Procedure (see paragraph 55 above), should have been considered as binding on the Supreme Administrative Court when rendering the decision in the case concerning damages. The applicant also pointed out that when annulling the SMCA orders to suspend her, the first-instance court had found that the inspection’s conclusions had been based on a subjective assessment of the circumstances and suppositions. 64. Lastly, the applicant argued that because of unlawful measures applied to her by the SMCA, she had not been able to conduct clinical trials for a period of two years, and therefore had been unable to generate income from such activity. However, this had not been taken into account by the national courts. Instead, the burden of unlawful action of the SMCA had been shifted on to the applicant alone, in violation of Article 6 of the Convention. (b)   The Government
65. The Government submitted that the applicant’s case and the situation at issue did not amount to a breach of the principle of legal certainty, enshrined in Article 6 § 1 of the Convention. 66. They argued, firstly, that the scope of the two sets of administrative proceedings had been different: within the first set the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court had decided on the reasonableness of the administrative decisions adopted by the SMCA on the basis of the inspectors’ conclusions regarding the applicant’s work as a researcher. That court had assessed only the circumstances established during the inspection as regards the two critical (serious) violations allegedly committed by the applicant, which had led to her suspension. Apart from that, within the first set of administrative proceedings the court had not assessed the lawfulness of the SMCA actions, nor had it examined any other circumstances with regard to the State’s liability. 67. The second set of administrative proceedings had concerned the matter of compensation for damage caused by allegedly unlawful actions on the part of the relevant public authority, the SMCA. The Government thus wished to explain that within that second set of administrative proceedings, in the context of the question of the State’s liability, the court had assessed whether the SMCA had issued the suspension orders in accordance with the law, in particular with regard to the protection of individuals participating in a clinical trial. The Supreme Administrative Court had found that the first-instance court’s findings within the first set of court proceedings, whilst quashing the orders to suspend the applicant, in themselves had not constituted grounds to establish the unlawfulness of the SMCA’s actions. The Supreme Administrative Court had also considered that the decisions issued by the SMCA had not been unlawful ab initio. 68. The Government also asserted that in the second set of the administrative proceedings the Supreme Administrative Court had not questioned the assessment of facts and circumstances as carried out by the first-instance court in the first set of administrative proceedings. The Government thus disagreed with the applicant’s view that in the second set of proceedings the court had newly assessed or interpreted the same factual circumstances but had come to the opposite findings. The Government considered that during the second set of proceedings the Supreme Administrative Court had refrained from assessing the severity of any shortcomings in the applicant’s actions in conducting the clinical trial. For the Government, the court had “merely noted” that the applicant had failed to take the required actions to ensure the quality, completeness and reliability of the documents of the clinical trial. The Supreme Administrative Court had assessed all the circumstances which it considered to be significant in the context of the damage allegedly sustained by the applicant due to what she claimed to be unlawful actions of the SMCA. Thus, in the second set of proceedings the Supreme Administrative Court had assessed whether the inspection could have been conducted in those circumstances, and also whether the SMCA had had competence to adopt relevant orders once it had received the conclusions of the inspection. 69. The Government also noted that in the second set of proceedings the Supreme Administrative Court had established that the SMCA’s actions had been in accordance with the law, that when adopting the orders to suspend the applicant from clinical trials the SMCA had aimed at preventing the violation of [other] patients’ rights and ensuring the safety of the clinical trials, and that once the inspectors’ conclusions, unfavourable to the applicant, had been received, the SMCA had had to take measures. 70. The Government also wished to point out that, under the well‑established case-law of the administrative courts, when examining administrative cases as regards the damage caused by unlawful actions on the part of the authorities, the annulment of an administrative decision in previous proceedings did not in itself imply unlawful actions on the part of the authorities such that civil liability would be found under Article 6.271 of the Civil Code. Furthermore, as noted by the Supreme Administrative Court in the second set of proceedings, also referring to its settled case-law, disputes in administrative cases concerning the annulment of administrative decisions differed from disputes in administrative cases regarding compensation for damage caused by unlawful actions on the part of the authorities (see paragraph 35 above). 71. In the light of the above, the Government considered that the Vilnius Regional Court’s decision within the first set of court proceedings annulling the SMCA suspension orders in respect of the applicant had not precluded the Supreme Administrative Court from carrying out an assessment of the factual circumstances in the context of the claim regarding the State’s liability within the second set of court proceedings. Within the context of two sets of proceedings, the domestic courts had assessed different factual and legal aspects of the relevant institution’s activities, and the courts’ finding that the actions of the relevant authority should not be considered as unlawful ab initio in the case regarding the compensation for damage had not contradicted the findings of the first court decision regarding the reasonableness of the applicant’s suspension. The Government asked the Court to dismiss the complaint as unfounded.

Article of the Convention at issue: Article 6
Outcome: violation