CASE OF LEONG POY v. PORTUGAL
Violation of Article 6 - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Civil proceedings;Article 6-1 - Reasonable time)
Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque
4. The applicant was born in 1946 and lives in Lisbon. 5. contrato de empreitada) pursuant to which the latter undertook, in 1996, to build the applicant a house. 6. On 22 May 2007 the applicant instituted civil proceedings in the Oeiras Civil Court against company C.C. for the alleged failure in the execution of the contract. 7. Between 22 May and 29 October 2007 company C.C. and the applicant submitted submissions in reply (constestação) and new submissions (réplica). Company C.C. argued, in particular, that the court had already decided in a case on the same subject (caso julgado). 8. On 26 August 2008 the Oeiras Civil Court gave directions considering that it had already decided on the same subject in a previous case (despacho saneador). The applicant appealed against this decision before the Lisbon Court of Appeal, which on 8 May 2009 revoked the Oeiras Civil Court decision and ordered the examination of the case. On an unknown date company C.C. appealed against this decision to the Conference of the Lisbon Court of Appeal, which on 16 July upheld its decision of 8 May 2009. 9. On 12 February 2010 the Oeiras Civil Court gave new directions setting out the questions which needed to be assessed. The applicant challenged the decision and both parties submitted evidence. 10. On 18 November 2010 held the first hearing. Until 19 September 2011 the Oeiras Civil Court listed eleven hearings, in which several witnesses were heard. 11. On 30 September 2011 the Oeiras Civil Court adopted a judgment ruling against the applicant. 12. On 23 January 2012 the applicant challenged the outcome of the proceedings before the Lisbon Court of Appeal. On 14 June 2012 the case-file was sent to the Lisbon Court of Appeal. Meanwhile, first-instance judge had to analyse a question of nullity which had been raised by the parties in the grounds of appeal submitted. 13. On 29 January 2013 the Lisbon Court of Appeal upheld the first-instance judgment. 14. On 1 March 2013 the applicant appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice, which dismissed the appeal for being lodged out of time. The applicant challenged this decision, which was upheld on 25 July 2013 by a decision of the Vice-President of the Supreme Court of Justice.