4.  The applicant, who is a Croatian national, was born in 1939 and lives in Zagreb. 5.  On 30 December 1993 the applicant brought a civil action against a private party in the Zagreb Municipal Court (Općinski sud u Zagrebu), seeking payment of a debt and damages related to a breach of contract. 6.  In the period before the ratification of the Convention by Croatia (5 November 1997), the court held four hearings. 7.  On 16 May 1995 and 8 February 2000 the Municipal Court invited the applicant to specify his claim. Since he failed to comply, the Municipal Court decided on 13 March 2000 that the applicant had withdrawn his action. 8.  On 24 March 2000 the applicant lodged a request for restoring the proceedings to the status quo ante (prijedlog za povrat u prijašnje stanje), which the Municipal Court granted on 3 November 2000 and set aside its decision of 13 March 2000. 9.  On 24 December 2004 the applicant lodged a constitutional complaint about the length of the above proceedings. 10.  On 13 April 2006 the Municipal Court adopted a judgment dismissing the applicant’s claim. The applicant appealed against the first-instance judgment to the Zagreb County Court (Županijski sud u Zagrebu). 11.  On 1 February 2007 the Constitutional Court found a violation of the applicant’s constitutional right to a hearing within a reasonable time. It also found that the delays in the proceedings in the period before November 2000 were entirely attributable to the applicant while the further delays in the period from 17 September 2001 until 24 December 2004 were attributable exclusively to the inactivity of the Municipal Court. The Constitutional Court awarded the applicant 4,500 Croatian kunas (HRK) in compensation and ordered the County Court to give a decision in the applicant’s case as quickly as possible but in any case within six months following the publication of its decision in the Official Gazette. The Constitutional Court’s decision was published on 7 March 2007. 12.  Meanwhile, on 13 February 2007 the County Court quashed the first-instance judgment and remitted the case to the Zagreb Municipal Court before which the proceedings are currently pending.