RYABTSEVA v. RUSSIA
Inadmissible
Alena Poláčková;Branko Lubarda;Dmitry Dedov;Georgios A. Serghides;Helen Keller;Helena Jäderblom;Luis López Guerra
1. The applicant, Ms Tatyana Sergeyevna Ryabtseva, is a Russian national who was born in 1949 and lives in Voronezh. She was represented before the Court by Mr Sivoldayev, a lawyer practising in Moscow. 3. On 30 June 2009 the applicant was dismissed from her post as director of a municipal art school in Voronezh. 4. A month later the applicant took Voronezh Town Council to court, seeking reinstatement. 5. On 20 August 2009 Judge Z. of the Central District Court of Voronezh dismissed her claim in full. It found that her dismissal had been lawful and had come as a response to her unsatisfactory performance at work. 6. The applicant appealed. She then submitted an addendum to the appeal, stating that Judge Z. was biased because the judge’s daughter worked as a lawyer at the Town Council. The applicant also alleged that as Judge Z. was also a Deputy President of the Central District Court and, among other duties, was in charge of the allocation of civil cases, she had intentionally taken charge of the applicant’s case. 7. An internal inquiry into the impartiality of Judge Z. was ordered by the President of the Central District Court of Voronezh. 8. The inquiry showed that there were no reasons for the judge to recuse herself suo motu in accordance with Article 16 of the Russian Code of Civil Procedure (see paragraph 10 below). There were no grounds to believe that Judge Z. had allocated the applicant’s case to herself intentionally. She had received the case because she was a senior judge who dealt with complex issues, such as reinstatement disputes, on a regular basis. Furthermore, her daughter had no evident connection to the applicant and had never been involved with the case. Also, the judge’s daughter had been on maternity leave since April 2009. 9. On 26 November 2009 the Voronezh Region Court dismissed an appeal in cassation by the applicant. The Regional Court addressed the applicant’s allegations of impartiality and also found them unsubstantiated. 10. Section 16 of the Russian Code of Civil Procedure reads as follows: “1. ... a judge shall not hear a case and shall be recused when: 1) he or she was involved in the case as a prosecutor, court clerk, representative, witness, expert or interpreter; 2) he or she is related to any person involved in a case or their respective representatives; 3) he or she has a personal direct or indirect interest in the outcome of a case or there are some other grounds to doubt his or her impartiality.”