7.  The applicants were born in 1946 and 1947 respectively and live in Sofia. They are spouses. 8.  On the basis of an order of 26 September 1990 issued by the secretary of the Sofia municipality, the applicants concluded a sale-purchase contract with the Sofia municipality by which they bought a State-owned apartment. The price they paid was 12,926 old Bulgarian levs (“BGL”). 9.  On a later unspecified date the municipality apparently granted the tenancy of the same apartment to another family. In the beginning of 1992 the applicants brought a rei vindicatio action against them claiming the possession of the apartment. 10.  In a judgment of 22 February 1993 the Sofia District Court dismissed the claim. On 7 February 1995 the Sofia City Court upheld the lower court’s judgment. The courts found that the sale-purchase contract of 1990 was null and void ab initio as the administrative decision authorising the transaction had not been signed by the mayor, as required by law, but by the secretary of the municipality, the latter having had no power to sign in the mayor’s stead. The applicants, thus, had not shown that they were the owners of the apartment and could not take the possession thereof. The applicants did not submit a cassation appeal (a “petition for review”) before the Supreme Court. As a result, the judgment of 7 February 1995 became final on an unspecified date in 1995. 11.  On an unspecified date in the beginning of 1995 the applicants brought proceedings under the State Responsibility for Damage Act (“the SRDA”) seeking damages from the Sofia municipality for having sold them the apartment in breach of the statutory requirements. The Sofia City Court held numerous hearings and adjourned the case on various occasions. A few hearings were adjourned for correction of the applicants’ statement of claim and in relation to their requests for increase of the claimed amounts, which delayed the examination of the case by several months. On 29 March 2002 the court delivered its judgment with which it allowed the claim and ordered the municipality to pay 24,000 new Bulgarian levs (“BGN”) in damages as well as costs and expenses. 12.  On appeal by the municipality filed on 30 May 2002, the Sofia Court of Appeal held one hearing on 28 May 2003. In a judgment of 6 June 2003 it reversed the lower court’s judgment and disallowed the claim. The court found that the authorities’ actions in concluding the sale-purchase contract did not give rise to a responsibility under the SRDA because the contract in issue entailed civil-law consequences and the case did not concern the exercise of State power. 13.  The applicants filed an appeal on points of law on 14 October 2003. The Supreme Court of Cassation held one hearing on 19 January 2005 and, in a final judgment of 18 February 2005, upheld the court of appeal’s judgment. The court held that the nullification of a civil transaction, which was possible in relation to any transaction and was an issue regulated by the general civil law – the Contracts and Obligations Act, could not entail State liability under the SRDA.