4.  The applicant was born in 1956 and lives in Narva. 5.  In 1983 the applicant married N. The marriage was dissolved on 7 February 1997. 6.  On 26 May 1997 N. lodged an action with the Narva City Court (linnakohus), requesting that the joint property, including an apartment, be divided. 7.  On 30 January 1998, the Narva City Court scheduled a preliminary hearing for 12 February 1998. However, on 11 February 1998 the applicant requested that the hearing be postponed as his lawyer had to participate in a hearing of a criminal case at the same time. The City Court adjourned the hearing.
A new preliminary hearing was scheduled for 19 August 1998. On the same day, N. requested that the hearing be adjourned because of her lawyer's absence. She requested that the hearing be scheduled for a date after 10 September 1998.
The third preliminary hearing took place on 13 October 1999 and a trial hearing on 31 August 2000. On 11 September 2000 the court delivered the judgment by which the marital property was divided. According to the City Court, the apartment was in the ownership of an apartment cooperative (korteriühistu, kooperatiiv). The applicant and N. had possessed a share in the cooperative. The City Court considered the sum they had paid for the share as a part of the joint property. 8.  On 5 June 2001, after an appeal by N., the Viru Court of Appeal (ringkonnakohus) quashed the rulings of the City Court and referred the case back to it. The Court of Appeal noted, inter alia, that the actual market value of the apartment at the time of the division of the property (as opposed to the construction costs) had to be taken into account for the determination of the value of the property. 9.  A hearing before the Narva City Court, scheduled for 13 June 2002, was adjourned in order to enable the parties to adduce additional evidence. In September, the parties submitted additional pleadings.
On 10 October 2002 the Narva City Court, following a hearing, delivered the judgment. It found that the applicant and N. had not been the owners of the apartment during their marriage. They had owned a share in the apartment cooperative. The City Court decided that the share had to be divided between the applicant and N. 10.  N. lodged an appeal with the Viru Court of Appeal, which, on 28 January 2003, quashed the City Court's judgment. It found that the apartment had been acquired by the applicant and N. jointly during their marriage. According to an expert opinion the current value of the apartment was 119,337 kroons (EEK) (corresponding approximately to 7,700 euros (EUR)). Proceeding from the above, the Court of Appeal divided the property. According to the judgment, the applicant had to pay EEK 61,698.5 (approximately EUR 3,900) to N. 11.  On 16 April 2003 the Supreme Court (Riigikohus) refused the applicant leave to appeal.