On June 14, 2012, the ECHR (Fifth Section) issued a decision in the case of Mangadash and Others v. Ukraine (Nos. 14018/08, 14835/08, and 31423/08). Each of the joined cases stemmed from a land-related dispute. The applicants claimed that the length of the proceedings in their cases did not meet the “reasonable time” requirement set forth in Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.
The first applicant initiated proceedings on February 14, 2000. Those proceedings were resolved on September 5, 2007, after eight adjournments caused by the defendant company and one adjournment caused by the applicant’s absence.
The second and third applicants initiated proceedings on December 1, 1995. The final ruling against the applicants was issued on November 20, 2007. The Court determined that the period to be taken into consideration with regard to the second and third applicants began on September 11, 1997, the effective date of Ukraine’s recognition of the right of individual petition.
The fourth applicant initiated proceedings on November 13, 2000. In 2008, the Supreme Court remitted the case to the court of first instance, where it remained pending at the time the ECHR’s decision was issued.
The Government contended that the applicants had lengthened the proceedings with adjournments and procedural requests. In addition, the Government contended that, in the case of applicants 2 and 3, the proceedings were complex, as demonstrated by the number of expert examinations. The Court rejected these arguments, noting that the applicants’ conduct could not justify the length of the proceedings and stating that “no particular complexity [was] discernible” in the land disputes. The Court determined, based on its prior case law, that Article 6 § 1 had been violated. The applicants’ other claims, mostly addressing the alleged unfairness and the outcome of the proceedings, were dismissed.
