Matthias and Others v. Italy (no. 35174/03)*
Just satisfaction
The applicants, Maurizio Matthias, Germana Matthias, Fabrizio Matthias, Maria Serena
Buongiorno, Maria Nelly Buongiorno and Renato De Cesare, are Italian nationals. The
case concerned a plot of building land owned by the applicants in Terracina and in
respect of which an urgent measure of occupation was decided for the purpose of
building social housing. In a judgment of 2 November 2006 the Court held that the loss
of availability of the land, together with the inability to have that situation remedied, had
entailed consequences that were serious enough to regard it as de facto expropriation,
incompatible with the applicants’ right to respect for their property (Article 1 of Protocol
No. 1). Today’s judgment concerned the question of just satisfaction (Article 41).
Just satisfaction: EUR 2,645.000 (pecuniary damage), EUR 20,000 (non-pecuniary
damage) and EUR 15,000 (costs and expenses) to the applicants jointly.
Scoppola v. Italy (no. 4) (no. 65050/09)*
The applicant, Franco Scoppola, is an Italian national who was born in 1940. Aged 72, he
has a number of health problems including heart conditions, diabetes, muscular
weakening and depression. He has been confined to a wheelchair since 1987. He was
sentenced to life imprisonment by the Assize Court in 2002 for killing his wife and
wounding one of his sons, a sentence subsequently reduced to 30 years. The conditions
of his detention in Rome prison, before his transfer to Parma prison on 23 September
2007, were dealt with in a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (Scoppola
v. Italy, no. 50550/06, judgment of 10 June 2008). The present application concerned
the conditions of his detention after that date. Following the indication to the Italian
Government by the Court (under Rule 39 of its Rules of Court – interim measures) that
he should be transferred urgently to a facility that was adapted to his state of health, in
order to exclude any risk of inhuman or degrading treatment, the enforcement of Mr
Scoppola’s sentence was suspended and he was placed under house arrest, as no
appropriate facility could be found. Relying on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or
degrading treatment), the applicant complained about his detention in Parma prison.
Violation of Article 3
Just satisfaction: EUR 9,333 (non-pecuniary damage) and EUR 6,000 (costs and
expenses)
Muscat v. Malta (no. 24197/10)
The applicant, Paul Muscat, is a Maltese national who was born in 1970 and lives in
Malta. Relying on Article 6 (access to court) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy),
Mr Muscat complained that he had been denied access to a court concerning a property
dispute over a hotel. In particular, he complained that it had been excessively formalistic
for the courts to declare his case deserted in November 2003 on the ground that no
notification of his appeal could be served due to an incorrect address (with the result
that the written procedure was not concluded within the legal time-limit).
No violation of Article 6 § 1
No violation of Article 13
Fusu Arcadie and Others v. Republic of Moldova (no. 22218/06)
The applicants, Arcadie Fusu, Petru Botezat, Tatiana Rusu, Svetlana Covalciuc, Galina
Bujor, Vera Boţoc, Vladimir Ţurcanu and Iacob Ciobanu, are eight Moldovan nationals
who were born in 1964, 1949, 1965, 1959, 1952, 1937, 1951 and 1930, respectively,
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