The voice of the parties to all degrees is a “guarantee” for the right to be heard
JUDGMENT
Lazarenko and others v. Ukraine 27-06-2017 (no. 70329/12, 9041/13, 9755/13, 15901/13, 27320/13 and 61147/14)
SUMMARY
Failure to communicate the appeal to the parties in a case involving their pensions constitutes an infringement of the right to be heard.
PROVISION
Article 6 par. 1
PRINCIPAL FACTS
The applicants, Gayana Lazarenko, Mykola Demskyy, Lyudmyla Novytska, Mariya Pivkhlopko, Vyacheslav Kucherenko, and Lyubov Vichkanova, are Ukrainian nationals who were born in 1938, 1956, 1947, 1942, 1950, and 1956 respectively and live in Dnipro and Lozuvativka (Ukraine). They claimed that the domestic courts had failed to adequately inform them of appeal proceedings, which had allegedly made them unfair.
All of the applicants had been involved in litigation with the authorities about the amount of pension that they were entitled to. The first-instance courts ruled in the applicants’ favour. However, these judgments were overturned by the Dnipropetrovsk Court of Appeal. Five of the six applicants complained that the authorities had failed to properly notify them that their cases had been under appeal. These applicants claimed that they had therefore been unable to participate in the proceedings, in violation of their rights under Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair hearing). The remaining applicant complained that, though he had received notification of his appeal, the pension authority had lodged it out of time.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT
Violation of Article 6 § 1 – in respect of Gayana Lazarenko, Mykola Demskyy, Lyudmyla Novytska, Mariya Pivkhlopko and Lyubov Vichkanova.
The Court further decided to strike out part of the application of Vyacheslav Kucherenko and declared inadmissible the remainder of the application.
Just satisfaction: EUR 1,000 each to Gayana Lazarenko, Mykola Demskyy, Lyudmyla Novytska, Mariya Pivkhlopko and Lyubov Vichkanova (non-pecuniary damage). injectable steroids
