CASE OF RATINHO v. PORTUGAL
Violation of Article 6 - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Enforcement proceedings;Article 6-1 - Reasonable time);Violation of Article 13 - Right to an effective remedy (Article 13 - Effective remedy)
Helen Keller;Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque
4. The applicant was born in 1938 and lives in Lisbon. 5. On 26 March 1997 the applicant started enforcement proceedings against a company before the court of Lisbon (domestic proceedings no. 1476/97.7 TVLSB) in order to obtain the payment of 12 740 euros (EUR). 6. On 24 April 1997 the debtor (executada) opposed the proceedings through the introduction of a motion on that regard (dedução de embargos). The motion was granted and remained valid until 19 September 2006. In the course of the proceedings, procedural steps were taken in the context of the opposition, which had to be suspended twice while waiting for a final decision in other two different proceedings. 7. On 16 September 1997 the court ordered the seizure (penhora) of the debtor’s assets, which took place on 16 January 1998. The applicant opposed it on 22 January 1998. The court ordered the lift of the seizure (levantamento da penhora) on 15 October 1998. 8. On 18 October 1999 the court ordered the suspension of proceedings because of the inactivity of the parties. The proceedings were suspended until May 2002. 9. Between June 2002 and 20 June 2012 several procedural steps took place, mostly notifications, provision of information from the parties and court orders (despachos). On 11 March 2003 the court ordered the sale of the business establishment that had previously been seized. Several attempts to sell it were made until 24 May 2012. 10. On 10 September 2012 due to the inactivity of the parties the court ordered the proceedings to be suspended once again. 11. According to the last information received by the Court on 11 June 2013, the proceedings are still pending.