5.  The applicants were born in 1927 and 1936 respectively and live in Písek. 6.  On 16 January 2002 a certain S., the applicants' neighbour, received a building permit to build an apartment building. 7.  The applicants appealed against the permit, and on 23 April 2002 the Písek District Office (okresní úřad) partly modified it. The District Office did not hold a hearing. 8.  On 29 April 2002 the applicants, through their legal representative, filed an action against the administrative decision (žaloba proti správnímu rozhodnutí) with the České Budějovice Regional Court (krajský soud), requesting, at the same time, postponement of the building of the flats 9.  In a decision of 23 May 2002 the Regional Court invited the applicants to give reasons, within ten days, for their request for the building permit to be suspended. The court also provided the applicants with the following notice:
“The court invites the party to the procedure to clarify whether he agrees to it proceeding without a public hearing ... on the basis of the documents submitted by the parties (Article 250f § 1 (b) of the Code of Civil Procedure). If no reply to this notice is received within the statutory time-limit, the court will assume that the party to the procedure does not oppose the court deciding without a hearing (Article 250f § 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure).” 10. The applicants were represented in the proceedings by counsel on the basis of a procedural power of attorney (procesní plná moc) and the decision was served on him on 24 May 2002. Apparently, the representative's son collected the court's decision instead of the representative himself. No reply was sent to the court within the fifteen-day time-limit. 11.  On 14 June 2002 the Regional Court dismissed the applicants' action. It did not hold a public hearing, assuming that the applicants, not having responded to the court's notice, agreed to such a procedure. 12.  On 27 August 2002 the applicants lodged a constitutional appeal (ústavní stížnost) alleging, inter alia, a violation of Articles 6 and 13 of the Convention and Articles 35 and 38 of the Charter. They further requested that Article 250a of the Code of Civil Procedure be repealed. 13.  In her written observations of 3 October 2002, the presiding judge at the Regional Court submitted that the court had dealt with the arguments the applicants had put forward in their action and had applied Article 250f of the Code of Civil Procedure, having informed the applicants' legal representative about their procedural rights and duties in conformity with that provision. 14.  On 5 December 2002 the Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud), without holding a public hearing, rejected the applicants' appeal as manifestly ill-founded. It included the written observations of the presiding judge at the Regional Court on the applicants' constitutional appeal in its summary of the facts. The court found that the Regional Court had reviewed the decision of the District Office of 23 April 2002, had rightly proceeded under Article 250f § 1b) of the Code of Civil Procedure and had exhaustively dealt with all the arguments raised by the applicants after having interpreted and applied the relevant provisions of national law. 15.  On 6 September 2007, the Ministry of Justice rejected the applicant's request for damages pursuant to Act no. 82/1998.