4.  The applicant was born in 1933 and lives in Teplička nad Váhom. 5.  On 14 May 1993 the applicant and eleven other persons filed an action with the Žilina District Court for determination of their shares in an estate. The action was dismissed on 24 October 1995. 6.  On 6 May 1996 and on 19 February 1997 the Banská Bystrica Regional Court, without deciding on the merits, returned the case to the District Court to rectify errors in its judgment. On 10 October 1997 the case file was again submitted to the Banská Bystrica Regional Court. The latter quashed the first-instance judgment and remitted the case to the District Court on 30 October 1997. 7.  In 2000 the Žilina Regional Court decided that the District Court judge was biased and the case was assigned to a different judge. 8.  Following the Constitutional Court's finding (see below), the District Court and the Regional Court decided on several occasions on the parties' requests for interim measure. The District Court also requested additional information, collected further evidence and invited the parties to the proceedings to specify their claims. The proceedings are still pending before the first-instance court. 9.  On 6 October 2005 the Constitutional Court found that the Žilina District Court had violated the applicant's right under Article 48 § 2 of the Constitution to a hearing without unjustified delay and under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention to a hearing within a reasonable time. 10.  The Constitutional Court held that the case was complex from the factual but not from the legal point of view and that the applicant's conduct had not contributed to the length of the proceedings. The Constitutional Court noted that the District Court by its erroneous conduct was responsible for a major part of the duration of the proceedings before the Regional Court. Delays imputable to the District Court totalled 74 months. 11.  The Constitutional Court awarded the applicant SKK 80,000 (the equivalent of 2,062 euros at that time) as just satisfaction in respect of non‑pecuniary damage and ordered the Žilina District Court to avoid any further delay in the proceedings. The applicant claimed reimbursement of his legal costs in the amount of 941 euros. The Constitutional Court ordered the District Court to reimburse the applicant the equivalent of 479 euros for legal representation.