4.  The applicant was born in 1961 and lives in Vinnytsya. 5.  On 8 May 1998 he lodged a claim with the Leninskyy District Court of Vinnytsya (“the Leninskyy Court”) against the S. enterprise in a consumer dispute between them. 6.  On 1 February 2000 the above court delivered a judgment. On 28 March 2000 the Vinnytsya Regional Court quashed it and remitted the case for fresh examination. 7.  By a judgment of 20 November 2002, the Leninskyy Court rejected the applicant’s claim as unsubstantiated. 8.  On 21 April[1] and 5 May 2003, respectively, the Vinnytsya Regional Court of Appeal (“the Court of Appeal”) and the Leninskyy Court requested the applicant to lodge his appeal against the above judgment in accordance with the procedural requirements. On 4 June 2003, following his failure to do so, the Leninskyy Court returned the appeal unexamined. 9.  On 12 February 2004 the Court of Appeal upheld the ruling of 4 June 2003. 10.  On 31 January 2007 the Supreme Court quashed the ruling of 12 February 2004 and remitted the case to the Court of Appeal for fresh examination, which on 6 April 2007 upheld the ruling of 4 June 2003. 11.  On 21 June 2007 the Supreme Court requested the applicant to lodge his appeal in cassation against the ruling of 6 April 2007 in accordance with the procedural requirements, following which on 6 August 2007 it refused to grant leave to the appeal. 12.  According to the Government, in the course of the proceedings fourteen hearings were adjourned due to the applicant’s or both parties’ failure to appear or following the applicant’s requests. The applicant disagreed stating that he had been absent from eight hearings because he had not been informed of them. The above delays on the applicant’s part protracted the proceedings by approximately four months. Twelve further hearings were adjourned due to the other party’s, expert’s or witnesses’ failure to appear, absence of the judge or for unspecified reasons. Two expert examinations were ordered and lasted in total for about one year.