CASE OF NIKOLAY KOZLOV v. RUSSIA
Violation of Article 6 - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Civil proceedings;Article 6-1 - Access to court)
Dmitry Dedov;Elisabeth Steiner;Erik Møse;Julia Laffranque;Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque;Ksenija Turković
5. The applicant was born in 1960 and lives in Cheboksary. 6. In 2001 the applicant obtained an award of remuneration arrears in the proceedings against a private company that went under insolvency administration. On 15 May 2003 the applicant sued the insolvency manager of the company seeking the recovery of the remuneration awarded to him by the court. 7. On 30 November 2004 the Novocheboksarskiy Town Court of the Republic of Chuvashiya dismissed the applicant’s claim. The applicant appealed. 8. On 12 January 2005 the Supreme Court of the Republic of Chuvashiya upheld the judgment of 30 November 2004. 9. On 3 July 2004 the applicant lodged a claim with the Supreme Court of the Republic of Chuvashiya against the Novocheboksarskiy Town Court seeking recovery of nonpecuniary damages for excessively long examination of his claim against the insolvency manager. 10. On 8 July 2004 the Supreme Court of the Republic of Chuvashiya returned the applicant’s claim on the ground that it did not have jurisdiction to examine it. The court directed the applicant to lodge the claim with a district court. The applicant appealed. 11. On 17 August 2004 the Supreme Court of Russia amended the decision of 8 July 2004 and dismissed the applicant’s claim without consideration on the merits on the ground that it could not be examined in the course of civil proceedings. The relevant part of the decision reads as follows: “... According to Article 16 of the Federal Law “On the Status of Judges in the Russian Federation” a judge could only be held responsible for actions committed in the course of administration of justice if he or she had been convicted of abuse of powers ... Since the issue of holding a judge responsible for an opinion expressed or a decision taken while administering justice could only be resolved in the course of the procedure established by law, the disputes of such kind could not be examined by courts in the course of civil proceedings. With regard to the issue of compensation for damages caused by unlawful actions ... of a judge in cases when the judge’s fault had been established in the course of other type of proceedings than criminal, the issues of the basis for and the procedure of compensation by the state of the damage caused by unlawful actions ... which manifested themselves, among other things, in the breach of [the requirement of] the reasonable length of court proceedings ... are at present not determined by law [as well as] the courts’ jurisdiction in such cases.” 12. In the meantime on an unspecified date the applicant lodged with the Leninskiy District Court of Cheboksary, as advised by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Chuvashiya (see paragraph 10 above), a claim against the Treasury of the Russian Federation and the Novocheboksarskiy Town Court seeking nonpecuniary damages for the excessive length of the civil proceedings in his case. 13. On 15 July 2004 the District Court dismissed the applicant’s claim without examination on the merits. The court noted that the procedure for challenging the actions of a judge required a special legal framework which had not yet been set up. The applicant appealed. The relevant part of the decision reads as follows: “... Taking into account the nature of the judiciary and the constitutional immunity of the judge, the procedure of appeal against the judge’s acts not resulting in the decision on the merits of a case required an adoption of special legislation. Currently there is no legislative framework in this respect ...” 14. On 23 August 2004 the Supreme Court of the Republic of Chuvashiya dismissed the applicant’s appeal. It stated that procedural rules for resolution of the issue raised by the applicant had not yet been established. The relevant part of the decision reads as follows: “... Taking into account the material law providing responsibility of the judges and judiciary, disputes arising from the applicant’s claim could be resolved only in the course of the civil proceedings established by law. On the date of adoption of the decision disputed by the applicant, the legislator did not provide any legal framework for such cases ...”