CASE OF FRIDMAN v. LITHUANIA
Violation of Article 6 - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Civil proceedings;Article 6-1 - Fair hearing)
András Sajó;Egidijus Kūris;Krzysztof Wojtyczek;Marko Bošnjak;Nona Tsotsoria;Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque;Vincent A. De Gaetano
5. The applicant was born in 1980 and lives in Vilnius. 6. On 5 March 2009 the applicant and his grandmother’s neighbour, 88year-old J.S., signed a contract on lifelong maintenance (išlaikymo iki gyvos galvos sutartis). Under that contract, J.S. transferred the rights to her apartment to the applicant, who undertook to take care of her until she died by providing her with food and medication, looking after her apartment, walking her dog, and providing any other necessary assistance. 7. In June 2009 J.S. lodged an application with a court to terminate the contract on the grounds that the applicant had not fulfilled his obligations and had not been taking proper care of her. The applicant objected to the termination and argued that he had complied with the terms of the contract. Relying on the testimony of several witnesses, on 29 January 2010 the Vilnius Regional Court, in an oral hearing at which both the applicant and J.S. were present, granted J.S.’s application and annulled the contract. 8. The applicant appealed, arguing that he had complied with the terms of the contract and that it should therefore not have been terminated. On 11 October 2010 the Court of Appeal held an oral hearing at which J.S.’s lawyer was present but the applicant and his lawyer were not. According to the Government, a notification letter was sent to the applicant on 21 September 2010. During the hearing the court noted that the applicant had been notified of the hearing (apie posėdį pranešta) and proceeded to examine the case in his absence. The Court of Appeal delivered its judgment on 22 October 2010, upholding the first-instance judgment in its entirety. 9. The applicant lodged a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court. He complained, inter alia, that he had not been duly notified of the hearing before the Court of Appeal and had thus been unable effectively to defend his interests. The applicant submitted that he had received the notification about the time and place of the hearing by standard (non-registered) post only on 14 October 2010, when he had found it in his letter box. However, on 4 November 2010 the Supreme Court refused to examine the applicant’s cassation appeal as raising no important legal questions. The applicant lodged two other cassation appeals, but on 6 December 2010 and 10 January 2011 the Supreme Court refused to examine them, citing the same grounds as previously.