CASE OF GUSAKOVA v. RUSSIA
No violation of Article 6 - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Enforcement proceedings;Article 6-1 - Access to court);No violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 - Protection of property (Article 1 para. 1 of Protocol No. 1 - Peaceful enjoyment of possessions)
Branko Lubarda;Dmitry Dedov;Helena Jäderblom
5. The applicant was born in 1957 and lives in Shuya, in the Ivanovo Region. 6. The applicant sued her former employer (the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kalmykiya, hereafter “the Ministry”). 7. On 27 October 1999 the Elista Town Court of the Republic of Kalmykiya (“the Town Court”) awarded the applicant monthly payments as compensation for damage to her health, with subsequent index-linked adjustment in accordance with changes in the statutory minimum monthly salary. The judgment came into force on 9 November 1999. 8. On 26 November 2002 Federal Law No. 152-FZ was adopted, which, inter alia, amended the procedure for index-linking compensation awards for damage to health. According to the new law, such payments were to be adjusted in accordance with changes in the level of inflation. The minimum monthly salary no longer served as the basis for index-linking. 9. In November 2006 the Ministry applied the new method of indexlinking, and recalculated the monthly payments to be paid to the applicant. This resulted in a decrease in the actual monthly amount she received from 10,370.51 Russian roubles (RUB) to RUB 7,396.59, as established in March 2007. 10. The applicant initiated three sets of proceedings, claiming delay interest in respect of three distinct periods. On 22 February and 3 April 2007 (upheld on 20 July 2007) the Justice of the Peace of Elistinskiy Court Circuit no. 5 of the Republic of Kalmykiya (“the Justice of the Peace”) ordered the Ministry to pay the applicant the interest in respect of certain delays in the monthly payments, in accordance with the judgment of 27 October 1999. On 22 February 2007 the judge agreed with the applicant’s calculation of the delay interest (based on the index-linking of the monthly payments in accordance with the changes in the statutory minimum monthly salary). On 3 April 2007 the court calculated the delay interest based on the amount of the monthly payments, as index-linked in line with the rate of inflation. 11. On 7 May 2007 the Justice of the Peace refused the applicant’s claim for the delay interest. On 8 August 2007 the Town Court quashed the above decision and ordered the Ministry to pay the delay interest as calculated by the applicant. The court held that, in the absence of a relevant judicial decision, the Ministry had unlawfully changed the mode of index-linking ordered by the judgment of 27 October 1999. 12. In the meantime, on 7 May 2007 the Ministry requested clarification of the judgment of 27 October 1999 as regards the method of index-linking. On 25 June 2007 the Town Court held that, as a result of changes in the relevant legislation, as of 1 January 2003 the index-linking of the amounts in question was to be based on changes in the level of inflation. On 11 October 2007 the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kalmykiya upheld the decision of the Town Court. 13. In a letter received on 1 October 2009 the applicant informed the Court that in August 2009 the Ministry had stopped paying the monthly payments, owing to a lack of funds in the relevant budget. 14. According to the Government, the amount due to the applicant from August 2009 onwards was paid to her in full on 8 October 2009. On 11 November 2009 the Town Court awarded her delay interest for late payment in respect of the delays in payment between September and October 2009. The judgment came into force on 23 November 2009, and was executed on 9 December 2009.