Aires v. Portugal

FOURTH SECTION

Application no. 27148/19 José Joaquim AIRES against Portugal

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 14 December 2023 as a Committee composed of:

Faris Vehabović , President , Anja Seibert-Fohr, Anne Louise Bormann, judges ,

and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 14 May 2019,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicant,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

The applicant’s details are set out in the appended table.

The applicant’s complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention concerning the excessive length of disciplinary proceedings were communicated to the Portuguese Government (“the Government”).

THE LAW

The Court has established clear and extensive case-law concerning complaints relating to the excessive length of proceedings (see Valada Matos das Neves v. Portugal , no. 73798/13, § 112, 29 October 2015).

Applying those principles to the present case and having examined all the material before it, the Court considers that for the reasons stated below, the complaint about the excessive length of the proceedings is inadmissible.

In particular, the Court finds that the applicant’s conduct contributed to the overall duration of the proceedings, which amounted to ten years at three levels of jurisdiction. It is noted that the applicant made use of all the appeals and objections available to him, having his case analysed twice within the same level of jurisdiction at all three levels of jurisdiction. Though it is legitimate for the applicant to make use of the remedies available to him, it may constitute an objective fact which cannot be attributed to the respondent State. Therefore, when considering, for the purpose of determining whether or not the reasonable time referred to in Article 6 § 1 has been exceeded, the Court finds that these complaints are manifestly ill-founded and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 3 (a) and 4 of the Convention.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Declares the application inadmissible.

Done in English and notified in writing on 18 January 2024.

Viktoriya Maradudina Faris Vehabović Acting Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

Application raising complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention

(excessive length of civil proceedings)

Application no.

Date of introduction

Applicant’s name

Year of birth

Start of proceedings

End of proceedings

Total length Levels of jurisdiction

Domestic court

File number

27148/19

14/05/2019

José Joaquim AIRES

1950

09/01/2002

18/01/2012

10 years and 10 days

3 levels of jurisdiction

219/05 STA