CASE OF UĞURLU AND OTHERS v. TURKEY
Violation of Article 6 - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Civil proceedings;Article 6-1 - Fair hearing)
Nebojša Vučinić;Paul Lemmens;Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström
4. The applicants are Turkish nationals, whose dates of birth and places of residence are shown in the appendix. They all own plots of land located in different cities of Turkey. 5. Following local land development plans, the applicants’ plots of land were designated for public use. Subsequently, complaining about the decrease in the market value of the land and the long-term uncertainty about the fate of their plots of land, the applicants initiated compensation proceedings before the civil courts. 6. During the proceedings relating to their land, the applicants submitted the decision given by the Plenary Chamber of the Court of Cassation (civil divisions, numbered E.2004/5-555 K.2005/17) to the domestic courts and asserted that according to this decision their compensation claims had to be accepted. 7. On various dates between 2007 and 2010, the applicants’ respective claims for compensation were dismissed by the domestic courts on the ground that their plots of land were not actually seized by the authorities. In their decisions, neither the courts of first instance nor Fifth Civil Division of the Court of Cassation, which examined the applicants’ claims on cassation, expressed any reason as to why they had reached a different conclusion from the plenary Court of Cassation. 8. The details of the proceedings may be found in the appended table.