4.  The applicants, Ms Lilyana Veselinova Dimitrova, born in 1952, and her son, Mr Yulian Dimitrov Dimitrov, born in 1983, live in Sofia. 5.  On 4 February 1998 their husband and father, Mr D.D., an aircraft maintenance technician, died in an air crash in Portugal. 6.  On an unknown date, not later than mid-1999, the applicants received an indemnity of 10,000,000 old Bulgarian levs (BGL) (the equivalent of 10,000 former German marks) under the liability insurance of Mr D.D.’s employer. 7.  On 10 December 1998 the applicants brought an action against Mr D.D.’s employer in connection with the occupational accident. They claimed a total of 200,000 new Bulgarian levs (BGN) (approximately 102,250 euros (EUR)) in non-pecuniary damages. 8.  The Sofia City Court conducted the first hearing on 21 June 1999. It ordered an expert report and postponed the hearing for the gathering of evidence. In the period from 24 January 2000 to 11 June 2001 it conducted five hearings, during which it questioned witnesses, admitted the expert report and a report from the Portuguese authorities which had investigated the air crash, and gathered other evidence. 9.  In a judgment of 30 August 2001 the Sofia City Court partly granted the applicant’s claim, awarding BGN 6,000 to the first applicant and BGN 7,500 to the second applicant, together with the statutory interest since the date of the air crash. It found, on the basis of the expert report and the report from the Portuguese authorities, that the accident had been due to a technical failure. However, certain acts and omissions of the crew, including Mr D.D., had partly contributed to the crash. The court qualified the behaviour of the crew as gross negligence and held that this called for a reduction of the compensation to be awarded to the applicants. The parties appealed. 10.  The Sofia Appeal Court conducted hearings on 12 April and 20 September 2002. In a judgment of 25 October 2002, which was rectified for errors by an additional judgment of 2 January 2003, it increased the award to BGN 13,000 for each applicant (EUR 13,300 in total). It ordered that the statutory interest should be paid as from the date of the incident until settlement. It held that Mr D.D.’s acts and omissions on the day of the accident could not be qualified as gross negligence and therefore no reduction of the compensation was justified. In assessing the amount of the non-pecuniary damages, the court took into account the insurance indemnity received by the applicants, the poor state of health of the first applicant and the fact that the second applicant had been underage at the time of the accident. The parties appealed on points of law. 11.  On 7 April 2003 the Supreme Court of Cassation suspended the enforcement of the judgment of the Sofia Appeal Court pending the outcome of the proceedings on points of law. 12.  On 31 May 2005 the Supreme Court of Cassation conducted a hearing. In a final judgment of 14 December 2005 it upheld the judgment of the Sofia Appeal Court.