CASE OF JOVOVIĆ v. MONTENEGRO
Violation of Article 6 - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Enforcement proceedings;Article 6-1 - Reasonable time);No violation of Article 6 - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Enforcement proceedings;Article 6-1 - Reasonable time)
Nebojša Vučinić;Paul Lemmens;Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström
5. The applicant was born in 1962 and lives in Podgorica. 6. On 14 April 2003 a certain Ž. L. (hereinafter “the first debtor”) and S. S. (hereinafter “the second debtor”) were each sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for attempted murder of the applicant in January 2003. 7. On an unspecified date, the applicant lodged a claim for damages with the Court of First Instance (Osnovni sud) in Nikšić. 8. On 23 June 2008 the aforementioned court ruled in favour of the applicant and ordered the debtors to pay him, jointly, 45,000 euros (EUR) plus statutory interest on account of the non-pecuniary damage suffered. 9. On 27 July 2009 the applicant lodged with the Court of First Instance in Podgorica a request for enforcement of the judgment dated 23 June 2008. Following an order, the applicant amended his request for enforcement on 25 February 2010. The enforcement order itself was then adopted on 31 March 2010. 10. On 24 April 2010 the debtors objected to the enforcement order, but their objections were rejected. 11. On 21 June 2010, 5 July 2010 and 7 July 2010 the enforcement court ordered the debtors to disclose their immovable property. It appeared that no immovable assets had been registered in the debtors’ names. 12. On 19 July 2010 the enforcement court requested information from the Ministry of Interior as to whether the debtors owned any motor vehicles. The record showed that the first debtor had had two motor vehicles. However, on 16 February 2011, when a bailiff came to make an inventory, the vehicles had already been sold to a third person. 13. On 7 September 2011 the enforcement court ordered an inventory of the debtors’ movable assets. 14. On 11 and 12 April 2012 new inventories of the debtor’s moveable assets were carried out. Between April 2012 and January 2013 the enforcement court dealt with the objections to the inventories raised by the debtors and third parties. 15. On 9 January 2013 a decision to auction the debtors’ specified movable assets was issued, and the applicant was ordered to deposit EUR 200 for the auction costs. The sale was scheduled for March 2013. However, on 27 February 2013 the second debtor informed the enforcement court that he had donated his movables to a charity. On 12 April 2013 a new inventory of his moveable assets was carried out. 16. On 15 April 2013 the applicant lodged a criminal complaint against the bailiff. 17. On an unspecified date in April the second debtor offered to pay the applicant EUR 15,000, but the applicant rejected this offer. The second debtor subsequently made a new offer in the amount of EUR 25,000, but this offer was also rejected by the applicant. 18. On 6 August 2013 the applicant informed the enforcement court that the second debtor had paid him EUR 31,000 and that he considered the enforcement proceedings in respect of this debtor as final. 19. On 18 October 2013 the enforcement proceedings in respect of the second debtor were formally terminated. 20. As regards the first debtor, the enforcement proceedings continued. 21. In September 2013 the first debtor’s specified movable assets were estimated at EUR 1,285.99 and the enforcement court invited the applicant to take possession of them on 16 September 2013. The applicant failed to do so. He was again invited to take possession of the assets in November 2013 and, once more, in July 2015. However, the applicant again declined to do so on both occasions. 22. On 20 October 2015 the first debtor’s father informed the enforcement court that he would pay his son’s debt. 23. In December 2015 the applicant was once again invited to take possession of the movable assets belonging to the first debtor. This time, the applicant explicitly rejected the court’s offer stating that he did not need those “worthless” assets and that they could have instead been given to a charity. 24. On an unspecified date in December 2015 the applicant notified the enforcement court that he had entered into an agreement with the first debtor and that the first debtor would honor the judgement debt in instalments. However, it appears from the applicant’s later submissions to this Court that the first debtor had in fact not paid him anything since he did not have any “valuable assets”. 25. Between March 2011 and March 2012 the applicant availed himself of two domestic remedies concerning the length of proceedings, in particular two requests for review of the duration of the proceedings, in order to have them expedited (kontrolni zahtjev) and three actions for fair redress, aimed at obtaining compensation for the excessive duration of the proceedings (tužba za pravično zadovoljenje). The Court of First Instance rejected the applicant’s requests for review on 30 June 2011 and 15 February 2012, respectively. The applicant unsuccessfully appealed to the High Court, which upheld the First Instance Court’s decisions. The High Court in Podgorica also ruled against the applicant’s actions for fair redress on 11 May 2011, 24 November 2011 and 10 May 2012, respectively.