4.  The applicants were born in 1947 and live in Litomyšl and České Budějovice respectively. 5. On 26 September 1994 the applicants instituted restitution proceedings in the Žďár nad Sázavou District Court (okresní soud). 6.  Received on 30 September 1994, the court sent the action on 31 October 1994 to the defendants for their observations. On 29 November 1994 and 25 January 1995 respectively, it requested the Land Registry (katastr nemovitostí) to provide it with supplementary documents. 7.  On 22 February 1995 the District Court requested the applicants to complete their action in order to reflect the facts revealed by the Land Registry’s documents. The applicants complied on 14 March 1995. The next day, the court requested the Land Registry to provide additional documentation. 8.  On 6 April 1995 it invited the applicants to substantiate the defendants’ liability to be sued (pasivní legitimace). 9.  On 24 April 1995 the applicants requested the District Court to include a fourth defendant in the proceedings. The court had therefore to obtain information about this new defendant from the Register of Companies (obchodní rejstřík). 10.  On 19 September 1995 it invited one of the defendants to submit written observations.  On 23 October 1995 the court received the applicants’ proposal to modify their restitution action. The same day, it admitted the new version of the action. 11.  A hearing scheduled for 12 April 1996 was adjourned at the applicants’ request until 4 June 1996. 12.  On 25 April 1996 the court received observations from one of the parties to the proceedings. 13. One of the applicants did not attend the hearing of 4 June 1996 which was then adjourned sine die in order to produce the evidence suggested by the parties. 14.  On 20, 21, 24, 25 and 27 June, 17 July and 4 September 1996, the District Court received documentary evidence. 15.   In a judgment of 1 October 1996 the District Court dismissed the applicants’ restitution action. 16.  On 18 October 1996 the applicants appealed. On 23 October 1996 they motivated their appeal, which was forwarded to the Brno Regional Court (krajský soud) on 12 December 1996. 17.  On 22 November 1999 the Regional Court, having requested further evidence on 3 November 1996 and having held a hearing on 15 November 1999, modified the first instance judgment. 18.  On 29 December 1999 the case file was returned to the District Court and, on 3 January 2000, the Regional Court’s judgment was sent to the parties. 19.  On 3 March 2000 the applicants filed a constitutional appeal (ústavní stížnost), claiming that Articles 1 (equality of all), 3 (prohibition on discrimination) and 11 § 1 (right to property) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms (Listina základních práv a svobod) had been violated. 20.  On 12 April 2000 the Supreme Court (Nejvyšší soud) dismissed the appeal which the applicants had lodged on points of law (dovolání) on 4 February 2000. 21.  On 17 May 2000 the Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud) invited the applicants to remove certain shortcomings in their appeal. The applicants complied on 2 June 2000. On 20 June 2000 the court dismissed the applicants’ constitutional appeal.