FOURTH SECTION

CASE OF PĂȘCOI AND OTHERS v. ROMANIA

(Applications nos. 8675/06, 60826/10, 27616/11, 67634/11, 74155/13, 1152/14, 10538/14 and 41786/14)

JUDGMENT

STRASBOURG

7 January 2016

This judgment is final. It may be subject to editorial revision.

In the case of Pășcoi and Others v. Romania,
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:
	Vincent A. De Gaetano, President,
	Egidijus Kūris,
	Gabriele Kucsko-Stadlmayer, judges,
and Karen Reid, Section Registrar,
Having deliberated in private on 3 December 2015,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
PROCEDURE
1.  The case originated in applications against Romania lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on the various dates indicated in the appended table.
2.  The applications were communicated to the Government.
THE FACTS
I.  THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE
3.  The list of applicants and the relevant details of the applications are set out in the appended table.
4.  The applicants complained of the non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of domestic decisions according to which the applicants were entitled to various pecuniary amounts and/or to have certain actions taken by State authorities in their favour. Some applicants also raised other complaints under various Articles of the Convention.
THE LAW
I.  JOINDER OF THE APPLICATIONS
5.  Having regard to the similar subject matter of the applications, the Court finds it appropriate to examine them jointly in a single judgment.
II.  AS TO THE LOCUS STANDI OF SOME APPLICANTS IN APPLICATION No. 41786/14
6.  The Court notes that in application no. 41786/14 the applicants Dinu Chioreanu, Gheorghe Dobrotă, Dumitru Duminică, Ion Pantelimon, Rădulescu Răducan and Costică Vlad have not been parties in the domestic outstanding proceedings insofar as their cases had been disjoined from the main case.
The Court further observes that in the same application the file contains no document signed by Virgina Ghelt and Ionică Tudor in which they indicated their wish to lodge an application with the Court.
7.  It follows that application no. 41786/14 is incompatible ratione personae with the provisions of the Convention within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 (a) and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 § 4 in respect of the eight applicants named above and indicated in the appended table (see Yavorovenko and Others v. Ukraine, no. 25663/02, §§ 19-21, 17 July 2014 and N.Z. v. Croatia, (dec.), no. 2140/13, § 24, 2 June 2015).
III.  ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 6 § 1 OF THE CONVENTION AND OF ARTICLE 1 OF PROTOCOL No. 1
8.  The remaining applicants complained of the non-enforcement or the delayed enforcement of domestic decisions given in their favour. They relied, expressly or in substance, on Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and on Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention. Insofar as relevant, these Articles read as follows:
Article 6 § 1
“In the determination of his civil rights and obligations ... everyone is entitled to a fair ... hearing ... by a ... tribunal”
Article 1 of Protocol No. 1
“Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions. No one shall be deprived of his possessions except in the public interest and subject to the conditions provided for by law and by the general principles of international law.
The preceding provisions shall not, however, in any way impair the right of a State to enforce such laws as it deems necessary to control the use of property in accordance with the general interest or to secure the payment of taxes or other contributions or penalties.”
9.  The Court reiterates that the execution of a judgment given by any court must be regarded as an integral part of a “hearing” for the purposes of Article 6. It also refers to its case-law concerning the non-enforcement or the delayed enforcement of final domestic judgments (see among many other authorities Hornsby v. Greece, no.18357/91, § 40, 19 March 1997).
10.  The Court also observes that the decisions in the present applications ordered the relevant authorities to execute various obligations in kind or to pay the applicants certain amounts of money. The Court therefore considers that the decisions in question constitute “possessions” within the meaning of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention (see for instance the case of Foundation Hostel for Students of the Reformed Church and Stanomirescu v. Romania, nos. 2699/03 and 43597/07, § 69, 7 January 2014).
11.  The Court firstly notes that in application no. 67634/11 part of the final domestic decision can no longer be enforced due to an objective impossibility; therefore the applicant’s non-enforcement complaint relating to reinstatement is to be dismissed as manifestly ill-founded (see Ciobanu and Others v. Romania (dec.), nos. 898/06, 39374/07, 1161/08 and 36461/08, § 27, 6 September 2011).
12.  With respect to all the remaining complaints concerning 
non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of domestic decisions, the Court already found a violation in respect of issues similar to those in the present case (see the leading case of Foundation Hostel for Students of the Reformed Church and Stanomirescu, cited above).
13.  Having examined all the material submitted to it, the Court has not found any fact or argument capable of persuading it to reach a different conclusion on the admissibility and merits of these complaints. Having regard to its case-law on the subject, the Court considers that in the instant case the authorities did not deploy all necessary efforts to enforce fully and in due time the decisions in the applicants’ favour.
14.  These complaints are therefore admissible and disclose a breach of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1.
IV.  REMAINING COMPLAINT
15.  In application no. 27616/11 the applicant also raised a complaint under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention concerning the length of proceedings. The Court has carefully examined the complaint and considers that, in the light of all the material in its possession, it should be dismissed as manifestly ill-founded (see Preda and Others v. Romania, nos. 9584/02, 33514/02, 38052/02, 25821/03, 29652/03, 3736/03, 17750/03 and 28688/04, §§ 131 and 155-157, 29 April 2014).
V.  APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 41 OF THE CONVENTION
16.  Article 41 of the Convention provides:
“If the Court finds that there has been a violation of the Convention or the Protocols thereto, and if the internal law of the High Contracting Party concerned allows only partial reparation to be made, the Court shall, if necessary, afford just satisfaction to the injured party.”
17.  Regard being had to the documents in its possession and its case law (see the Foundation Hostel for Students of the Reformed Church and Stanomirescu, cited above, §§ 90 – 91), the Court considers it reasonable to award the sums indicated in the appended table.
18.   The Court further notes that the respondent State has an outstanding obligation to enforce the judgments which remain enforceable.
19.  The Court considers it appropriate that the default interest should be based on the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank, to which should be added three percentage points.
FOR THESE REASONS, THE COURT, UNANIMOUSLY,
1.  Decides to join the applications;

2.  Declares the complaints concerning non-enforcement or delayed enforcement raised by the applicants Dinu Chioreanu, Gheorghe Dobrotă, Dumitru Duminică, Ion Pantelimon, Rădulescu Răducan, Costică Vlad, Virgina Ghelt and Ionică Tudor in application no. 41786/14, as well as the complaint concerning length of proceedings raised in application no. 27616/11, inadmissible;

3.  Declares the complaint raised in application no. 67634/11 concerning the non-enforcement of the final decision partially inadmissible;

4.  Declares the remaining complaints concerning the non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of domestic decisions admissible;

5.  Holds that these complaints disclose a breach of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention concerning the non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of domestic decisions;

6.  Holds that the respondent State shall ensure, by appropriate means, within three months, the enforcement of the domestic decisions as referred to in the appended table;

7.  Holds
(a)  that the respondent State is to pay the applicants, within three months, the amounts indicated in the appended table, to be converted into national currency at the rate applicable at the date of settlement;
(b)  that from the expiry of the above-mentioned three months until settlement simple interest shall be payable on the amount indicated in the appended table at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points.
Done in English, and notified in writing on 7 January 2016, pursuant to Rule 77 §§ 2 and 3 of the Rules of Court.
	Karen Reid	Vincent A. De Gaetano
	Registrar	President

List of applications raising complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1
(non-enforcement or delayed enforcement of domestic decisions)

No.	Application no.
Date of introduction	Applicant name
Date of birth
Date of registration	Relevant domestic decision	Start date of non-enforcement period	End date of non-enforcement period
Length of enforcement proceedings	Amount awarded for non-pecuniary damage
per applicant
(in euros)	Amount awarded for costs and expenses
per application
(in euros)	
1.		8675/06
17/02/2006	Ileana PĂȘCOI
01/07/1935

Elena HAVA
31/03/1936
	Oradea District Court,
07/06/2004	13/12/2005	pending
9 years and 9 months	3,600	-	
2.		60826/10
20/09/2010
(3 applicants)	Constantin RĂDOI
27/10/1944

Raluca Cristina
NEGREA GHEORGHIU
25/03/1975

Ioana Georgia Alexandra Mândra 
GHEORGHIU NEGREA
06/07/1972
	 Bucharest County Court,
06/02/2008	11/03/2010	pending
5 years and 6 months	-	-	
3.		27616/11
22/04/2011	VECHEA ASOCIAȚIUNE FUNEBRALĂ ROMÂNĂ
(Old Romanian Funeral Association)

	Oradea Court of Appeal,
14/10/2004	05/06/2013	pending
2 years and 4 months	1,200	-	
4.		67634/11
17/10/2011	Elena POPA
12/09/1951	Olt County Court,
17/11/2004	05/05/2005	pending
(salary entitlements)
10 years and 5 months
	2,300	-	
5.		74155/13
16/11/2013	Zorița PISEK
12/01/1935	Timiș County Court,
16/11/2001
	02/07/2010	pending
5 years and 3 months	-	-	
6.		1152/14
19/12/2013	Ion DRAGOTOIU
13/04/1950	Motru District Court,
22/06/2009
	10/11/2009	pending
5 years and 10 months	-	-	
7.		10538/14
23/01/2014	Maria UNGURU
13/08/1952
	Motru District, 15/12/2010
	29/03/2011
	pending
4 years and 6 months
	3,000	-	
8.		41786/14
27/05/2014
(188 applicants)	Petrică PODARU
14/11/1956
Viorel ANDREI
27/01/1967
Victor ANGHELATO
28/10/1974
Săndel ANTON
23/10/1969
Aurelia ARAMĂ
23/12/1961
Alecu ARBĂNAȘU
24/03/1957
Frusinica ARBANASU
02/03/1958
Florentin ARICIU
08/12/1956
Marian Costel AVRAM
30/07/1963
Dinel BĂCANU
01/07/1969
Fănică BĂDIN
29/07/1959
Gheorghe BADIN
08/06/1956
Leana BĂJENARU
09/11/1953
Daniel BĂLAN
01/07/1969
Angheluță BALUȚĂ
13/05/1962
Silvia BARBU
03/01/1969
Aurel BĂTRÎNU
20/06/1949
Dumitru BĂTRÎNU
07/09/1956
Ion BECU
02/08/1971
Constantin BÂSCEANU
31/03/1955
Gheorghe BOBOC
20/10/1965
Dănuț BOGOȘ
29/05/1957
Marian BOITOȘ
22/03/1972
Ion BOLDEANU
18/11/1955
Florin Radu BORȚEANU
16/05/1950
Alexe BOTEA
02/08/1955
Vasile BRATU
04/06/1949

Nicu BUCUR
15/08/1950
George BUF
12/01/1950
Virgil BUF
19/12/1955
Ștefana BUF
20/02/1959
Ionica BUZOIANU
29/08/1965
Victor BUZOIANU
01/04/1957
Costel CĂLIN
03/06/1950
Elena CANCIU
16/01/1961
Gheorghe CANCIU
19/01/1958
Lilica Marinela CANCIU
06/06/1971
Ghiță CANDEȚ
15/08/1946
Marian CARNU
10/02/1953
Voica CATRINA
10/05/1951
Mariana CERNAT
04/07/1967
Dinu CHIOREANU
20/05/1959
Victor CHIOREANU
14/11/1950
Florentin CHIȚOIU
13/01/1977

Octavian CHIȚOIU
12/12/1949
Vasile CHIȚOIU
20/10/1953
Matei CIOCÂRLAN
26/04/1957
Gheorghe COMĂNOIU
08/12/1952
Aurelian CONSTANTIN
29/04/1966
Constantin CONSTANTIN
16/09/1950
Maria CONSTANTIN
20/07/1954
Marinel CONSTANTIN
12/12/1955
Vasile CONSTANTIN
18/02/1969
Stănel Doru CRĂCIUN
22/08/1962
Vasile CRISTEA
26/09/1949
Rodica CUCU
10/09/1960
Liviu CULACHE
04/02/1971
Vasilică DARIE
05/11/1960
Gheorghe DECIANU
03/03/1956
Neculai DERMENGIU
07/05/1959
Fănel DIMA
21/09/1964

Florentina DINU
09/11/1974
Maria DINU
30/11/1957
Gigel DINULESCU
17/08/1952
Constantin DOBRE
02/04/1959
Tudorel DOBRE
25/11/1969
Victorița DOBRE
04/11/1968
Mariana DRĂGUȘANU
23/12/1967
Gheorghe DRĂGUȚ
22/08/1969
Gheorghe DOBROTĂ
21/08/1956
Maria Ecaterina DUDĂU
15/03/1953
Dumitru DUMINICĂ
01/01/1953
Valentin Adrian DUMITRU
05/08/1975
Cristache DURBACĂ
24/09/1970
Dorian DUȚU
31/01/1961
Ionel ENACHE
05/05/1971
Mihaela ENACHE
03/01/1973
Alexandru FLOREA
16/01/1958
Marin FRONEA
08/07/1949
Petrica FRONEA
05/09/1952
Victor GEREA
28/09/1955
Virginia GHELT
02/11/1967
Emilia GHILINȚĂ
18/01/1966
Iuliana GHIMPE
13/07/1961
Ilie GHINDĂ
05/05/1955
Adelina Mihaela GHIONU
02/03/1977
Mihai GRIGORE
15/02/1959
Neculai GRIGORE
28/08/1956
Manole GROSU
22/03/1957
Leanca GURĂU
04/07/1960
Traian HAGIU
27/04/1954
Liliana HORNEȚ
04/06/1969
Mărioara ICONARU
05/05/1958
Mărioara ILIE
04/06/1965
Vasile ILIE
23/03/1960

Flavian IONESCU
17/10/1971
Mădălina IONIȚĂ
08/12/1967
Sorin IOSIF
30/04/1975
Camil IOVU
21/08/1962
Ion ISTRATI
13/10/1950
Valentina ISTRATI
16/01/1956
Dobre IVAN
28/12/1953
Stere JIRU
21/04/1964
Gheorghe LEOCĂ
18/02/1950
Radu LUPAȘCU
02/07/1955
Jan MANEA
20/07/1956
Petre MANEA
09/06/1959
Nicușor MARCU
25/11/1967
Mița MARIN
29/05/1958
Nicolaie Cicerone MATEI
20/05/1970
Cristina MEHEDINȚI (STAICU)
14/05/1979
Fănica MERIȘOR
16/03/1956
Carmen Gina MIHAI
24/04/1964
Constantin MIHALACHE
27/06/1956
Vasile MILEA
29/02/1952
Marinela MIRCEA
23/12/1964
Ene MIRON
06/10/1956
Petrică MITITELU
25/05/1962
Adrian MOCANU
19/12/1966
Nicu MOISE
01/05/1975
Ștefan MOISOIU
23/11/1970
Florentina MOTOC
28/05/1972
Florica MOTOC
29/05/1950
Milică MUNJIEV
02/09/1955
Aurel MUREȘANU
20/08/1956
Neculița NEACȘU
17/06/1955
Nicușoara NEAGU
14/11/1952
Radu NEAGU
15/10/1949
Ion NECULAI
14/12/1970

Lucia Daniela NEGRIȘAN (MOCANU)
02/08/1968
Dumitru NICA
09/05/1956
Gheorghe NISTOR
10/10/1965
Cristinel NIȚĂ
26/02/1973
Rodica NOGHEA
08/04/1957
Ionel OANCEA
02/05/1957
Ion PANTELIMON
01/02/1955
Ion PĂTRÂNOIU
27/03/1949
Demetra Diana PAVALACHE
02/09/1969
Ioana PETCU
04/02/1952
Toma PETCU
31/05/1953
Adrian PETREA
16/03/1964
Vasile PÂRLOG
30/07/1951
Gheorghe PODARU
22/01/1971
Virginia PODARU
22/03/1963
Paraschiv POPA
25/02/1967

Mihalcea POPESCU
19/10/1956
Tănțel PORCUȚ
27/06/1969
Gheorghe POTÂNGĂ
08/04/1954
Florin PUIU
28/01/1974
Marian PURCĂREA
23/10/1970
Toma PURICE
06/11/1956
Costică RĂDULESCU
26/09/1970
Răducan RĂDULESCU
02/06/1950
Vasilică RĂFOIU
27/02/1962
Valeriu Cezar ROBITU
08/12/1975
Mioara ROȘU
30/10/1966
Florentin SECHEL
04/12/1967
Flavian ȘERBAN
11/07/1962
Ionel ȘERBAN
02/09/1969
Victor SOLTUZ MOCANU
29/09/1964
Petrică STAICU
30/09/1959
Cătălin STAMATE
20/06/1972

Viorel STAMATE
08/07/1967
Viorel STAN
18/03/1965
Ionica STANCIU (VASILE)
28/03/1971
Ionel STĂNESCU
03/07/1966
Viorica ȘTIRBEI
22/08/1967
Lucian STOIAN
27/07/1957
Marian STOIAN
17/02/1960
Marin STOICA
01/10/1958
Virgil TABIRCĂ
03/11/1947
Dobre TĂNASE
09/10/1950
Tache TATU
07/05/1953
Ion TOADER
04/02/1957
Neculina TOADER
14/06/1970
Fănica TRIFU
03/12/1966
Nicolae TUDOR
13/12/1947
Ionică TUDOR
18/01/1952
Liliana URSE
28/07/1961
Daniela VASILE
06/11/1967
Fănica VLAD
24/08/1961
Cristian VOICU
10/02/1961
Ionuţ VOICU
14/11/1980
Mariana VOICU
10/10/1961
George ZAINEA
23/10/1958
Iuliana ZECA
22/04/1968
Costică VLAD
01/12/1960
Mohamed MOUMENE
28/06/1959	Brăila County Court, 26/01/2011	30/09/2011	pending
4 years	-	15,000