Prague - The Justice Ministry will have to answer several hundreds legal actions for damage.
These are caused by protracted lawsuits brought in by individuals entitled to agricultural land and demanding unsuccessfully their property back.
Their land is mostly still being used by farming co-operatives surviving from the time of Communist collectivisation albeit in modernized form.
The threat of the lawsuits was confirmed by the deputy chairman of the Association of Land Owners and Private Farmers Jaromír Morávek who is involved long-term in the protection of property rights of the so-called entitled person.
Property worth billions
The collective farms still have to hand over property worth tens of billions of CZK to the rightful owners, he claims.
For ten years or more, the property has been object of litigations between people with both restitution claims and claims arising from the co-operatives' transformations, and there is no prospect of their court cases being concluded in sight.
Under the Act 82/1998 of the Legal Code, as amended in April 2006, Czech citizens are entitled to compensation for any non-property related damage arising from lengthy court proceedings and for not being able to use their property, Mr Morávek says.
Nevertheless, the Justice Ministry, which is responsible for paying out reparations under that law, in most cases doesn't grant financial compensation.
No right to reparations
The Ministry officials, on the other hand, react to applications from the private parties involved in long-term litigation by sending out a written acknowledgment of delays in the court proceedings, adding that the applicants have no right to financial reparations as the acknowledgment of the delays itself constitutes satisfactory compensation.
The Justice Ministry spokesperson, Zuzana Kuncová claims such written acknowledgments of the claimants' rights arising from damages resulting from implementing public power are being used in the cases where "a wrong official procedure with inappropriate length of administrative process had been found to have taken place, nevertheless, an acknowledgment of wrongful procedure under the legal criteria was thought to constitute a sufficient form of compensation for the non-property related damage suffered."
Apology is no compensation
Ms Kuncová also admits that those applying for compensation for non-property related damages are entitled to demand their rights through courts had their claims not been resolved within six months.
"We have to admit, though, that since the Compensation Act was amended the number of applications submitted multiplied many times. Under the circumstances, the Justice Ministry is unable to cope with all the cases within six months because of lack of personnel," the spokeswoman said.
"An apology for court procedure delays definitely does not constitute satisfactory compensation for those entitled," Mr Morávek stresses.
In practice, this could mean a number of lawsuits against the Justice Ministry and/or the Czech Republic in the foreseeable future, he says. And, as the Czech state fails to observe its own legislation, it is bound to lose them.
European Court to help
Should those entitled fail to win back their property rights, including the compensation for non-property related damages, at the domestic Courts, including the Constitutional Court, they might turn to the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg and legally challenge the Czech Republic there.
Damages the state would have to pay in such a case would reach tens of thousands euros per case.
According to the Justice Ministry's current statistics show a proportion of applications for compensation for non-property related damages have been successful.
Ms Kuncová says since the law was amended on April 27, 2006, a total of 2,168 such claims were submitted to the Ministry.
Of those, 1,430 applications have been processed by now and financial compensation was granted in 528 cases.
