CASE OF SZKÓRITS v. HUNGARY
Violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 - Protection of property (Article 1 para. 1 of Protocol No. 1 - Peaceful enjoyment of possessions)
András Sajó;Egidijus Kūris;Guido Raimondi;Helen Keller;Jon Fridrik Kjølbro;Nebojša Vučinić
6. The applicant was born in 1929 and lived in Budakalász. 7. He had a joint title to a plot of land in the value of 4.59 “gold crowns” (aranykorona). The land was, from an unspecified date on, in the possession of, and used by, a Socialist “collective farm”. Following the adoption of Act no. II of 1993 on Land Settlement and Land Distribution Committees, the Pest County Land Registry adopted a plan on the division of such properties. That decision was subsequently upheld by the Bács-Kiskun and Pest County Office of Compensation. 8. On 15 November 1999 a plot of arable land of 979 square metres, situated in the village of Budakalász, was designated by the Pest County Land Registry for the purpose of privatisation, under lot no. 3305. This measure was approved by the Regional Office for Restitution and Compensation Affairs. On 15 November 1999 the applicant was granted ownership of the plot by the Regional Office of Agriculture. His title to the land was registered on 28 August 2000. 9. However, he could not enter into possession, because the plot which he had been granted was apparently occupied and being used by the owners of the neighbouring plots. 10. The applicant brought a trespass claim before the District Notary, asserting that his use had been unjustifiably interfered with. Following the dismissal of his request, he sought judicial review of the decision, bringing a civil action before the Budapest II/III District Court against the neighbours, seeking protection of his possession rights. 11. While this case was pending, the respondents initiated the correction of the land register maps. In the ‘remapping’ proceedings, the District Land Registry observed that plot no. 3305 did not exist in reality. On appeal, the County Land Registry confirmed this finding, designating a new plot for the applicant, under no. 3305/1, on 21 June 2006. This plot was nonetheless smaller than that originally allocated to the applicant, and was apparently not suitable for farming. Quite independently of the present dispute, on 16 December 2005 a new, digitally compiled land register was put in place by the Budakalász authorities, with the apparent intention of eliminating the existing inaccuracies. 12. The applicant’s civil action was stayed for the duration of the remapping proceedings. After the adoption of the County Land Registry’s final decision, the District Court dismissed the action on 15 December 2006, observing that the respondents had not used the applicant’s land unlawfully, as the plot of land registered under plot no. 3305 did not exist in reality. The applicant appealed. 13. The appeal proceedings appear to have been subsequently suspended since the applicant sought judicial review of the remapping decision. In the course of these administrative court proceedings, it was confirmed by an expert land surveyor that the applicant had originally been granted a plot which had been registered with topographic and editing errors, and that these had been duly corrected in the remapping proceedings. Therefore, the Pest County Regional Court dismissed the applicant’s claim on 13 March 2008. This was confirmed by the Supreme Court on 28 April 2009. 14. Since in the remapping proceedings the location of the land belonging to the applicant eventually became indisputable and it turned out that this plot was not possessed by any of the respondents, the applicant withdrew his appeal against the first-instance judgment of 15 December 2006. 15. As a result of the above proceedings, the applicant could finally obtain possession of the land in question ten years after having acquired it, that is, sometime in 2009. 16. On 28 October 2009 the applicant lodged an official liability action against the District and the County Land Registries. His action was dismissed by the Buda Surroundings High Court on 13 March 2012. The court found that the applicant’s damage had been caused by his own conduct since he had initiated a number of futile proceedings before various authorities. 17. The applicant appealed; however, the appellate proceedings were suspended on account of his death on 16 March 2012, with a view to the successor’s joining the case. It appears that the proceedings are still pending, that is, remain suspended.