On 30 June, the Chamber of Civil Cases of the Supreme Court announced short judgement in the case regarding claim against the Republic of Latvia in person of the Ministry of Transport with the third party SJSC “Starptautiskā lidosta Rīga”” (International Airport “Riga”) regarding recovery of compensation and interest for the plot of land, which was alienated from the claimant for needs of airport “Riga”. The court recovered for the claimant compensation in amount of 158 268.20 EUR, lawful interest, for the period between 1 March 1997 and 1 June 2015, in amount of  158 268.20 EUR, court costs in amount of  3159.48 EUR, expenditures related to conduct of a case in amount of  5326.79 EUR, making in total 325 022.67 EUR.  The rest part of a claim is rejected. Complete judgement of the appellate instance court will be prepared on 14 July, and, after the composition of the complete judgement, parties to proceedings may appeal against it under cassation procedure to the Department of Civil Cases of the Supreme Court in 30 days.

When hearing the case under appellate procedure, proceedings were suspended in the case twice. First time proceedings were suspended to file an application to the Constitutional Court, and second time – so that the judgement in similar case on recovery of compensation would enter into force. In this judgement, the cassation instance court had pointed out that, when hearing the case, the court had to observe conclusions made by the European Court of Human Rights in the judgement rendered in the case “Vistins and Perepjolkins v. Latvia” regarding criteria of assessment of just satisfaction and proportionality, which are applicable in similar disputes.  Foregoing judgement rendered by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights provides extensive assessment of property and land reform in Latvia and property rights to particular plot restored to single individuals.  

The plaintiff filed the claim for recovery of compensation and delayed interest to Riga regional court in February 2007, after her inheritance right to plot of 4.3499 ha located in Marupe parish of Riga district was consolidated in 2001. Title to foregoing plot was corroborated to a previous owner of a plot in February 1995. On 5 February 1997, the Saeima (Parliament) of the Republic of Latvia adopted the law “On Alienation of Land Properties for Needs of the State in the Territory of SJSC “Riga””, which stipulated to alienate land properties of former owners and their heirs with total space of  242.6467 ha. Plaintiff’s property was included in the list of lands to be alienates, and compensation for alienated land was determined in unilateral way, in amount of Ls 622.47. When determining this amount of compensation, amendments of 19 December 1996 to the decision by the Supreme Council “On forced alienation of real property for needs of the state or the public” of 15 December 1992 were applied. Item 2 Part 2 of these amendments states that, when alienating real estate necessary for needs of the state or public, and former owner’s title to real property was restored during land reform, amount of compensation must be determined in monetary expression, but it must not exceed estimation of real property in a land book or cadastral documents compiled before 22 June 1940, and in which estimation of a real property is indicated. In opinion of the plaintiff, amendments of 19 December 1996 to the decision by the Supreme Council of 15 December 1992, which were adopted less than two months prior to alienation of the property, show state’s purpose to avoid compensation of real value of property at the moment of alienation.The plaintiff believes that the State infringed her property rights by not paying just compensation for alienated real property, acting inconsistently and violating principle of legal certainty.  The plaintiff asked the court to recover compensation in amount of Ls 326 200 and delay interest in amount of Ls 195 720.

On 29 October 2008, when hearing the case in the first instance, Riga regional court rejected the claim.

Information prepared by Baiba Kataja, the Press secretary of the Supreme Court
Telephone: 67020396; e-mail: baiba.kataja@at.gov.lv