Constitutional Court on the "Swiss" case: Appeal of 95 citizens accepted, they will not pay court costs

The Constitutional Court accepted the constitutional appeal of 95 citizens and overturned the decision of the Podgorica Higher Court from November 2020 in the case known as the "Swiss".

With this court ruling, beneficiaries of housing loans indexed in Swiss francs were obliged to bear the costs of the proceedings regarding the lawsuit they had been conducting until the Law on Conversion of Loans in Swiss francs was adopted.

By the decisions of the Podgorica Basic and High Courts, each of them is obliged to pay 7,6 thousand euros in procedural costs to the opposing party.

"The Constitutional Court has accepted a constitutional appeal with reference to the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights 'Žulić v. Croatia'. In this case, the court rejected the appeal of 18 citizens as inadmissible, because the lawyer did not submit special powers of attorney," the statement said.

Although this, the only case from 2021, had been prepared for decision in advance, and which the court president Snežana Armenko spoke about on several occasions, the election of at least one missing judge was awaited, given that the lawyers requested the disqualification of one judge, but there was no quorum to decide on the matter.

The session unanimously rejected the request for exemption as unfounded, after which the conditions were met to decide on the substance of the dispute itself.

"The election of new judges was necessary to resolve these appeals, which once again indicates the urgency of filling the entire judicial staff. A fully staffed Constitutional Court is a guarantee that a decision will be made in every case, even in the most complex ones," the statement concludes.