VIDIĆ AND OTHERS v. SERBIA
Inadmissible
András Sajó;Guido Raimondi;Helen Keller;Nebojša Vučinić;Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque
The cases originated in three separate applications against Serbia (see list appended), lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”). The persons stated as the applicants in the application forms were Mr Milomir Vidić (application no. 60/10), Mr Radomir Aleksić (application no. 77/10), and Mr Petronije Perić (application no. 110/10). They were all Serbian nationals, born in 1960, 1935 and 1953, respectively. Mr M. Jevtović, a lawyer practising in Užice, claimed to represent the applicants before the Court. The Serbian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr S. Carić. The applications were lodged on 6 November 2009 and concerned the non-enforcement of four final court judgments rendered against a socially/State-owned company (see, for example, R. Kačapor and Others v. Serbia, nos. 2269/06, 3041/06, 3042/06, 3043/06, 3045/06 and 3046/06, 15 January 2008). Enclosed with the application forms were the powersofattorney dated 15 October 2009 and signed “Vidić Milomir”, “Radomir Aleksić” and “Perić Petronije”. The powers-of-attorney were also signed by Mr Jevtović and stamped with his stamp. On the basis of signed declarations according to which the Government undertook to pay to each applicant 2,100 euros in respect of non-pecuniary damage and legal costs plus the sums awarded in the final domestic decisions, on 13 November 2012 the Court decided to strike the applications out of its list of cases. By letter of 20 February 2013 the Government notified the Court that Mr Milomir Vidić, Mr Radomir Aleksić, and Mr Petronije Perić had actually died on 1 June 2003, 16 December 2004 and 21 August 2004 respectively, that is before the applications had been lodged. In his reply of 30 April 2013 Mr Jevtović did not contest that Mr Milomir Vidić, Mr Radomir Aleksić, and Mr Petronije Perić had died before the applications were lodged, but stated that he had been unaware of this fact at that time, because he had represented those applicants, along with many of their colleagues. Since his clients performed construction work in the field, he was unable to meet them all, but asked some of them to have powers-of-attorney signed by their colleagues and to bring those forms to him. He also stated that he had no reason or interest in lodging applications on behalf of dead persons, when he could have lodged the application on behalf of their heirs. In this respect, Mr Jevtović produced powerofattorney forms signed by the heirs of Mr Milomir Vidić, Mr Radomir Aleksić and Mr Petronije Perić authorising him to receive the amounts agreed in the friendly settlement declarations. On 1 October 2013 the Court decided to restore the applications to its list of cases.