CERNIAK v. LITHUANIA - 37723/11 (Judgment : No Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 - Protection of property : Fourth Section Committee)

Paulo Pinto de Albuquerque, President, Egidijus Kūris, Iulia Antoanella Motoc, judges, and Andrea Tamietti, Deputy Section Registrar,

. On 27 September 2001 the Vilnius County Administration (hereinafter "the VCA") restored the applicant's mother's property rights by giving her a plot of six hectares in Pagiriai, an area in the Vilnius city municipality. As the applicant's mother had died in 1995, the applicant was issued with a certificate of inheritance in respect of the plot on 13 March 2003.

. The applicant and the VCA lodged appeals against that decision, arguing that the restoration of the applicant's mother's property rights had complied with the relevant legislation. The applicant also submitted that he was being deprived of his property without any compensation. However, on 1 June 2010 the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeals and upheld the lower court's decision in its entirety.

. The applicant lodged an appeal on points of law, arguing that the lower courts had incorrectly found that the forest on his land constituted an urban forest, but on 25 January 2011 it was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

. On 23 February 2012 the applicant received a letter from the National Land Service (the institution which took over the relevant functions of the VCA after an administrative reform - hereinafter "the NLS") confirming that his mother had retained the right to have her property rights to six hectares of land restored. It stated that there was no more vacant land in Pagiriai and asked the applicant to inform the authorities of his choice as to one of the forms of restitution provided for by the domestic law (ibid., § 92). It is unclear whether he replied to this letter.