CASE OF LIATUKAS v. LITHUANIA
No violation of Article 6 - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Civil proceedings;Article 6-1 - Fair hearing;Equality of arms)
András Sajó;Egidijus Kūris;Iulia Motoc;Krzysztof Wojtyczek;Nona Tsotsoria;Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque;Vincent A. De Gaetano
5. The applicant was born in 1956 and lives in Kaunas. 6. In March 2008 the applicant’s mother passed away. At the time of her death, her estate consisted of an apartment, a car, and cash savings of 6,360 Lithuanian litai (LTL, approximately 1,842 euros (EUR)). In her will she left half of the apartment to the applicant’s niece and the remaining property to the applicant and his sister in equal parts. On 27 May 2008 the applicant renounced his part of the inheritance (see paragraph 20 below). 7. In September 2008 V.L. brought a claim against the applicant before the Kaunas District Court. V.L. submitted that the applicant owed her LTL 14,488 (approximately EUR 4,196) in maintenance payments for their son which he had not paid because he had been insolvent. V.L. argued that by renouncing his part of the inheritance the applicant had violated her rights as a creditor because the inherited property could have been used to cover the applicant’s debt. V.L. therefore invoked Article 6.66 of the Civil Code (see paragraph 23 below) and asked the court to annul the renouncement as being contrary to the interests of the applicant’s creditors. She also asked the court to recognise that the applicant had de facto accepted the inheritance because he had been using his mother’s estate since her death (see paragraph 21 below). 8. In October 2008 a similar claim under Article 6.66 of the Civil Code was brought by D.L. She submitted that the applicant had been under an obligation to pay her maintenance and that he owed her LTL 8,734 (approximately EUR 2,530). D.L. asked the court to annul the applicant’s renouncement of the inheritance and to recognise that he had de facto accepted it. In March 2009 the Kaunas District Court decided to examine V.L.’s and D.L.’s claims together. 9. The Kaunas District Court held an oral hearing on 11 November 2009 in which the applicant and both claimants were present. The applicant argued that he had renounced his part of the inheritance for the benefit of his sister who had paid all the expenses of their mother’s funeral. The applicant also submitted that his sister and niece had accepted the entire inheritance and that he had not used any of the property belonging to his late mother’s estate. 10. On 25 November 2009 the Kaunas District Court partly upheld V.L.’s and D.L.’s claims. It held that the applicant had acted in bad faith by renouncing the inheritance while being insolvent and owing money to the claimants. Accordingly, the court annulled the renouncement on the grounds that it violated the interests of the applicant’s creditors (see paragraph 23 below). However, the court held that there was insufficient evidence to find that the applicant had de facto accepted the inheritance and dismissed that part of the claim. 11. The applicant appealed against that judgment. D.L. also appealed but the Kaunas District Court refused to accept her appeal for examination because of formal deficiencies – D.L. had asked to be completely exempted from paying court fees on the grounds that she was disabled and had a low income, but domestic law allowed only for partial exemptions (see paragraph 24 below). D.L. was given ten days to correct the deficiencies in her appeal. On 28 January 2010 the Kaunas District Court held that D.L. had not submitted a corrected appeal within that time-limit so it considered that she had not appealed (see paragraph 25 below). However, on 1 February 2010 the Kaunas District Court referred both the applicant’s and D.L.’s appeals to the Kaunas Regional Court. 12. On 3 February 2010 the applicant received notice from the Kaunas District Court that the civil case and both his and D.L.’s appeals had been referred to the Kaunas Regional Court, and he was asked to submit a reply to D.L.’s appeal within twenty days. However, a copy of D.L.’s appeal was not enclosed. The applicant sent a letter to the Kaunas Regional Court requesting a copy of the appeal. He received it on 10 April 2010 and submitted a reply on 16 April 2010. 13. Subsequently the applicant asked the Kaunas Regional Court to proceed with the examination of the case in his absence – the applicant stated that he had presented all his arguments in his appeal and in his reply to D.L.’s appeal and had nothing else to add. On 15 September 2010 the Kaunas Regional Court held an oral hearing from which the applicant and D.L. were absent but where D.L.’s lawyer was present. 14. By a judgment of 29 September 2010 the Kaunas Regional Court dismissed the applicant’s appeal and upheld D.L.’s appeal. The court upheld the findings of the first-instance judgment that the applicant had acted in bad faith by renouncing the inheritance while being insolvent and owing money to his creditors (see paragraph 10 above). The Kaunas Regional Court also found that since his mother’s death the applicant had been using the car previously owned by her and on that basis the court concluded that the applicant had de facto accepted the inheritance (see paragraph 21 below). 15. The applicant submitted an appeal on points of law but on 27 December 2010 the Supreme Court refused to examine it as raising no important legal questions. 16. In March 2011 D.L. brought a new claim against the applicant and his sister. D.L. submitted that although the court in previous proceedings had acknowledged that the applicant had de facto accepted the inheritance (see paragraph 14 above), the applicant had not formally completed that acceptance and his sister had remained the official heir to their mother’s estate. D.L. asked the court to annul the applicant’s sister’s rights to one half of the inheritance and to recognise the applicant’s rights to that property. 17. On 5 March 2012 the Kaunas District Court dismissed D.L.’s claim. The court found that the total value of the applicant’s mother’s estate (the car and the savings) had been LTL 6,860 (approximately EUR 1,987), and that the applicant’s sister had spent LTL 7,817 (approximately EUR 2,264) on their mother’s funeral. In line with domestic law, an heir had the right to cover funeral expenses from a deceased person’s estate before formally accepting the inheritance (see paragraph 22 below). On that basis, the Kaunas District Court held that the applicant’s sister had not inherited any property which could have been used to cover the applicant’s debt to D.L., and thus there were no legal grounds to satisfy D.L.’s claim. That judgment was not appealed against and became final. 18. In March 2011 the applicant submitted a complaint to the Commission on Judicial Ethics and Discipline concerning the judge of the Kaunas District Court who had examined the civil case (see paragraph 10 above). He complained that the judge had acted in abuse of office by referring D.L.’s appeal to the Kaunas Regional Court because that appeal had not been submitted in accordance with procedural rules (see paragraph 11 above). On 8 June 2011 the Commission dismissed the applicant’s complaint. It held that although the judge had been “insufficiently attentive” and had referred D.L.’s appeal to the Kaunas Regional Court by mistake, that mistake had not been so grave as to constitute abuse of office. 19. In August 2011 the applicant petitioned the Prosecutor General to investigate the actions of the judges of the Kaunas District Court and the Kaunas Regional Court. On 30 September 2011 the prosecutor’s office denied the applicant’s request on the grounds that no crime appeared to have been committed. The prosecutor’s decision was subsequently upheld by the courts.