Koković and Others v. Serbia

THIRD SECTION

Application no. 24769/09 Dušan KOKOVIĆ against Serbia and 10 other applications (see list appended)

The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 7 April 2015 as a Committee composed of:

Ján Šikuta, President, Dragoljub Popović, Iulia Antoanella Motoc, judges,

and Marialena Tsirli, Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above applications lodged between 29 April 2009 and 13 September 2012,

Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the cases,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

A list of the applicants and their representatives is set out in the appended table.

The Serbian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms V. Rodić.

Relying on Articles 6 and 13 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1, the applicants complained about the non-enforcement of final court decisions rendered in their favour against different socially/State ‑ owned companies. The final court decisions under consideration in this case remain unenforced to the present day.

The essential information as to the domestic proceedings in respect of each application is indicated in the appendix.

Between 14 November 2014 and 24 February 2015 the Court received friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties under which the applicants agreed to waive any further claims against Serbia in respect of the facts giving rise to these applications against an undertaking by the Government to pay each of them 2,000 EUR (two thousand euros), less any amounts which may have already been paid in that regard at the domestic level, to cover any non-pecuniary damage as well as costs and expenses, which would be converted into local currency at the rate applicable on the date of payment, and would be free of any taxes that may be applicable. These sums would be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court. In the event of failure to pay these sums within the said three-month period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on them, from expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points.

The parties, furthermore, agreed that within the said three-month period the Government would pay, from their own funds, the sums awarded in the domestic decisions under consideration in the present cases (see table appended), less any amounts which may have already been paid on the basis of the said decisions, plus the costs of the domestic enforcement proceedings. These payments will constitute the final resolution of the cases pending before the European Court of Human Rights.

THE LAW

The Court considers that, in accordance with Rule 42 § 1 of the Rules of Court, the applications should be joined, given their similar factual and legal background.

The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the applications.

In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the cases out of the list.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Decides to join the applications;

Decides to strike the applications out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention.

Done in English and notified in writing on 30 April 2015.

Marialena Tsirli Ján Šikuta Deputy Registrar President

Appendix

No.

Application

no. and date of introduction

Applicant name

date of birth

nationality

Represented by

Final domestic decision details

Enforcement order details

24769/09

29/04/2009

Dušan KOKOVIĆ

31/03/1953

Serbian

Gojko ŠARENAC

Belgrade

1 P.I. 169/95 of 15 January 1997

2 P.I. 577/97-01 of 23 May 2002

I. XIV 16583/06 of 12 April 2007

27264/09

06/05/2009

Desimir MILIĆ

14/08/1939

Serbian

_

_

Enforcement requested in the context of insolvency proceedings against the debtor

Niš Commercial Court

1 St. 3206/2002 of 18 April 2005

66833/09

23/11/2009

Vera SAVIĆ

12/10/1947

Serbian

_

_

Enforcement requested in the context of insolvency proceedings against the debtor

Zaječar Commercial Court

St. 124/04 of 8 February 2005

51279/10

28/08/2010

Snežana OGRIZOVIĆ

14/03/1965

Serbian

_

Sombor

P.1. 398/97 of 18 October 2002

1 I. 762/04 of 9 May 2005

2 I. 762/04 of 31 October 2005

13288/11

12/01/2011

Arsenije LAZOVIĆ

24/03/1958

Serbian

Ramiza PALJEVAC EMROVIĆ

Novi Pazar

P1. 120/05 of 17 June 2005

Enforcement request of

14 December 2005

25385/11

09/03/2011

Mubera LJAJIĆ

05/11/1962

Serbian

Ramiza PALJEVAC EMROVIĆ

Novi Pazar

P1. 1240/10 of 7 October 2010

1 Enforcement request of 26 December 2010

2 Enforcement request in the context of insolvency proceedings against the debtor of 8 January 2011

66080/11

22/08/2011

Radenko LAZIĆ

13/12/1951

Serbian

_

Šabac

1 P. 1958/03 of 14 June 2004

2 P. 2544/05 of

15 September 2005

3 IIIR 1296/06 of

13 December 2006

1 Šabac I. 2184/06 of

09 October 2006

2 Bogatić I. 95/09 of

27 February 2009

3 Bogatić I. 103/09 of

06 March 2009

4, Bogatić I. 87/09 of

23 February 2009

5053/12

05/08/2011

Milodarka KOSTIĆ

14/03/1951

Serbian

Refija GARIBOVIĆ

_

Enforcement requested in the context of insolvency proceedings against the debtor

Commercial Court in Kraljevo

3 St. 31/2010 of 2 December 2011

14189/12

05/12/2011

Sima STANKOV

06/12/1953

Serbian

Šandor KOVAČ

11/06/1945

Zrenjanin

Jozef REŠTAŠ

16/02/1954

Zrenjanin

Dragi JABLANOV

Zrenjanin

1 P1. 1063/99 of 11 May 2000

2 Gž-1. 22/01 of 7 February 2001

1 Enforcement request of

10 April 2001

2 I. 2179/03 of 24 November 2003

3 I. 2179/03 of 26 December 2003

45957/12

16/07/2012

Uroš SREBRO

20/02/1942

Serbian

_

Aranđelovac

P. 152/04 of 8 July 2004

1 I. 1409/11 of 8 April 2011

2 I. 1409/11 of 17 May 2011

62911/12

13/09/2012

Jelka RISTIĆ

22/04/1958

Serbian

Slobodan MILANOVIĆ

Novi Pazar

1 P1. 666/97 of 18 June 1997

2 P1. 186/02 of

24 September 2002

3 P1. 605/04 of 23 August 2004

1 I. 511/2002 of 8 August 2002

2 I. 635/2002 of 12 February 2003

3 I. 947/2004 of 18 October 2004