DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE OF JUDGES OF COMMON COURTS OF GEORGIA
Decision of Disciplinary Committee #1/01-11, August 2, 2012
Disciplinary Committee Of Judges Of Common Courts Of Georgia
D E C I S I O N
Case No1/01-11 August 2nd, 2012
Tbilisi
Disciplinary Committee Of Judges
Of Common Courts Of Georgia
comprised of:
Chairman: Lasha Kalandadze
Members: Mamia Pkhakadze
Giorgi Shavliashvili
Secretary: Irakli Gvaramadze
The parties:
Representative of the High Council of Justice of Georgia __________ __________;
Judge of the __________ __________ Court __________ __________;
Has tried the disciplinary case against the judge of the __________ __________ Court __________ __________ in a closed hearing and
F O U N D:
Based on the complaint by the citizen __________ __________ (registration number No____), the High Council of Justice of Georgia has initiated disciplinary proceedings against the judge of the __________ __________ Court __________ __________.
As per the decision of the High Council of Justice of Georgia, judge __________ __________ has been subjected to disciplinary responsibility for the commission of misconduct – Failure to Fulfill Judicial Duties and Improper Fulfillment of Judicial Duties, foreseen by the subparagraph “f” under the paragraph 2 of the article 2 of the Law of Georgia on “Disciplinary Responsibility And Disciplinary Proceedings Of Judges Of Common Courts Of Georgia”.
Imposition of disciplinary responsibility on the judge was based on the following circumstances:
On January 28th, 2010 __________ __________ has filed a claim with the __________ __________ Court against the respondent __________ __________ on the in kind division of the inheritance property, withdrawal of the due share from illegal possession and restitution of damages. Based on the judgment of March 1st 2010, the judge of the __________ __________ Court __________ __________ upon correction of a flaw, the __________ __________ claim has been admitted. And, based on the judgment of March 22nd 2010, a preliminary court hearing has been scheduled for April 1st 2010.
On April 1st 2010 at the preliminary court hearing the judge __________ __________ has proposed settlement to the parties, which has been accepted by both of the parties. At the same hearing, the motion of the plaintiff has been granted and a third party __________ __________ has been included in the case. The hearing has then been postponed to April 16th 2010. At the hearing on April 16th the representative of the respondent filed a motion to postpone the hearing to clarify the conditions of settlement. The motion has been granted and the hearing has been postponed. The next hearing took place on May 13th 2010 during which due to the failure of the parties to settle, the judge __________ __________ has ordered an engineering-technical expertise based on a protocol judgment and the trial of the case has been suspended until the completion of the expertise.
On May 27th 2010 the representative of the respondent has filed a motion with the __________ __________ Court accompanied by __________ __________ and a settlement act of May 26th 2010 concluded between __________ __________ and __________ __________ to request endorsement of the aforementioned act. Based on the judgment by the judge __________ __________ of May 27th 2010, the trial of the case has been resumed and the aforementioned settlement act has been endorsed through the judgment of June 11th 2010.
On September 14th 2010 __________ __________ has filed a claim with the __________ __________Court requesting to find the judgment of June 11th 2010 null and void and to renew case proceedings due to newly discovered circumstances. As per the judgment of October 8th 2010 of the judge __________ __________ the aforementioned claim has been denied. The aforementioned claim as well as the judgment of June 11th 2010 have been appealed through private complaint and the case has been transferred to the Chamber of Civil Cases of the Tbilisi Court of Appeals.
In adjudicating the present civil case, the judge __________ __________ has violated:
- The requirement of the paragraph 6 of the article 284 of the Code of Civil Procedure of Georgia according to which “the court shall prepare a substantiated judgment for the submission to the parties during 14 days upon announcement of the concluding section of the judgment”.
- The article 371 of the Code of Civil Procedure of Georgia according to which “upon admission of an appeal, the first instance court shall immediately, but no later than within 5 days, transfer the complete case as well as additional materials received to the Court of Appeals”. The case has been sent to the upper instance court after 2 months and 25 days upon the filing of the private complaint.
At the hearing of the Disciplinary Committee of judges of common courts of Georgia, during the review of the disciplinary case, the representative __________ __________ of the High Council of Justice supported in full the disciplinary charges and requested to find the fact of the commission of disciplinary misconduct by the judge __________ __________ as established.
Disciplinary Committee of judges of common courts of Georgia has tried the disciplinary case, examined the materials of the aforementioned case, heard the disciplinary prosecution, held the factual circumstances of the disciplinary charges as established and found that the following facts of law shall be taken into consideration:
As per the article 53 of the Law of Georgia on , Disciplinary Committee shall make a decision on finding a judge guilty of committing a disciplinary misconduct and on imposing a disciplinary sanction on him/her, if as a result of trial of the case in the Disciplinary Committee, the faulty commission of one or more disciplinary misconducts foreseen by the aforementioned law by a judge has been established, which in itself obliges the Disciplinary Committee to establish the entirety of circumstances as provided by the article 45 of this law, namely “…whether the judge has committed an act for which he/she has been charged and whether this act is a disciplinary misconduct under this law, whether the judge is faulty of the commission of the disciplinary misconduct”.
Based on the aforementioned, a basis for the imposition of disciplinary responsibility shall be the obligation to establish culpability of the judge in committing a disciplinary misconduct. That is, in order to establish culpability, all objective circumstances shall be taken into consideration, that have conditioned commission of the specific act found disciplinary misconduct.
According to the paragraph 6 of the article 284 of the Code of Civil Procedure of Georgia “within 14 days prior to the announcement of the concluding section of the judgment, the court shall prepare a substantiated judgment for the submission to the parties”.
As per the article 259 of the aforementioned Code, “based on their respective claims, the parties shall be provided with the copies of the court ruling no later than 3 days of the submission of the claim”.
- Disciplinary Committee has found that the judge __________ __________ has disregarded the requirements under the Code of Civil Procedure of Georgia, namely: the judge had the duty to prepare the judgment and submit it to the parties within the term determined by the law; the judge further had the duty to submit the copy of the judgment within 3 days upon receipt of the motion to issue a copy of the judgment.
- Pursuant to the article 417 of the Code of Civil Procedure of Georgia, “the private complaint accompanied with the case shall be submitted to the upper instance court”.
In accordance to the article 420 of the aforementioned Code, “the trial of the private complaints by the upper instance courts shall be conducted accordingly in observation of the rules foreseen for these courts”.
Pursuant to the article 371 of the Code of Civil Procedure of Georgia, “upon admission of an appeal, the first instance court shall immediately, but no later than within 5 days, transfer the complete case as well as additional materials received to the Court of Appeals”.
Disciplinary Committee has found, that the private complaint together with its accompanying materials was supposed to be transferred to the upper instance court within 5 days upon receipt of the private complaint.
Disciplinary Committee clarifies, that the actions of the judge have not caused any negative effect, namely: the rights and legitimate interests of the parties have not been caused any harm. Further, the aforementioned misconducts of the judge has had no influence on the enforcement process of the decision made.
Disciplinary Committee has taken into consideration the professional reputation of the judge, the nature, gravity, implications and number of misconducts and due to the minor gravity of the violation the court did not find it reasonable to impose a disciplinary sanction on the judge.
Due to the aforementioned, Disciplinary Committee has held that the judge of the __________ __________Court __________ __________ shall be imposed disciplinary responsibility and a disciplinary influence measure – a letter of recommendation shall be applied.
Guided by the article 45 and 47, subparagraph “d” of the paragraph 1 of the article 48, article 51, paragraph 1 of the article 54 and article 57 of the Law of Georgia on “Disciplinary Responsibility And Disciplinary Proceedings Of Judges Of Common Courts Of Georgia”, Disciplinary Committee of judges of common courts of Georgia
H E L D:
1. Judge of the __________ __________ Court __________ __________ shall be found liable for the commission of disciplinary misconduct - Failure to Fulfill Judicial Duties and Improper Fulfillment of Judicial Duties, determined by the subparagraph “f” of paragraph 2 of the article 2 under the Law of Georgia on and shall be imposed disciplinary responsibility with the application of the disciplinary influence measure – a letter of recommendation;
2. The copies of the decision of the Disciplinary Committee of judges of common courts of Georgia shall be submitted to the persons and bodies determined by the law;
3. The decision may be appealed with the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court of Georgia within 10 days upon its submission through the Disciplinary Committee of judges of common courts of Georgia.
Chairman: Lasha Kalandadze
Members: Mamia Pkhakadze
Giorgi Shavliashvili
