5.  The applicant was born in 1966 and lives in Iași. 6.  On an unspecified date in 2006 the applicant brought proceedings against a third party, seeking the annulment of two sale/purchase agreements concerning an apartment. 7.  By a judgment of 25 January 2007 the Iaşi District Court, acting as a court of first instance, allowed the applicant’s action on the merits and declared the two contracts null and void. The third party appealed against the judgment. 8.  By a decision of 21 November 2007 the Iaşi County Court, sitting as a bench of two judges, allowed the third party’s appeal on the merits, quashed the judgment of 25 January 2007 and dismissed the applicant’s action. The applicant lodged an appeal on points of law (recurs) against that decision. 9.  By a final decision of 2 June 2008 the Iaşi Court of Appeal dismissed the applicant’s appeal on points of law as inadmissible, without commenting on the merits of the case. It held that, under Article 2811 of the Romanian Code of Civil Procedure, judgments delivered by first-instance courts in respect of disputes where the subject matter of the litigation had been valued at less than one billion Romanian lei (RON) (approximately EUR 27,000) were not subject to an ordinary appeal. The applicant had estimated the value of the disputed property to be RON 9,000. Therefore, the judgment delivered by the District Court could only be challenged by way of an appeal on points of law. Moreover, the decision of the Iaşi County Court was final, even if the County Court had erred and examined the applicant’s case in a composition of two rather than three judges.