5.  The applicant was born in 1960 and lives in Martin. 6.  On 20 October 2011 the applicant lodged a claim with the Martin District Court (“the District Court”) (file no. 10 C 60/2012), seeking payment of his wages plus interest in connection with the termination of his employment. 7.  On 17 February 2012 the District Court issued a payment order in summary proceedings. As the defendant challenged the order, the matter fell to be determined by the court in ordinary proceedings. 8.  It took the District Court more than eight months to deal with an application by the applicant to change the particulars of claim. 9.  In October 2014 the applicant lodged a complaint with the Constitutional Court under Article 127 of the Constitution, contesting the length of the proceedings before the District Court. 10.  On 28 April 2015 the Constitutional Court rejected his complaint (file no. III. ÚS 172/20150), on the grounds that, prior to lodging his constitutional complaint, the applicant had failed to exhaust ordinary remedies, in particular lodging a complaint with the President of the District Court under the Courts Act (Law no. 757/2004 Coll.).
The Constitutional Court referred to the Court’s previous case-law in Ištván and Ištvánová v. Slovakia (no. 30189/07, 12 June 2012), and tried to distinguish that case from the applicant’s case. It observed that the case of Ištván and Ištvánová concerned proceedings lasting more than six years, which was substantially longer than the duration of the proceedings in the applicant’s case (three years). The Constitutional Court further stated that only in cases where the length of proceedings was prima facie excessive at the time of lodging a constitutional complaint was it not necessary to lodge a complaint with the president of a court, and therefore the applicant should have lodged a complaint with the President of the District Court. 11.  In the meantime, the District Court had appointed an expert in economics, accountancy and tax, and had ordered the applicant to pay fees in advance for the expert evidence. That order was challenged by the applicant before the Žilina Regional Court, but to no avail. The appointed expert then prepared her opinion between June and September 2015. 12.  Subsequently, the District Court scheduled a hearing for 16 March 2016. On that date the District Court delivered a judgment by which it granted the applicant’s claim in part and dismissed the remainder of the claim. A written judgment was delivered to the applicant two months later. However, in their submissions to the Court the parties failed to specify the exact date when the judgment was served on the applicant, and they did not provide appropriate evidence to confirm this. They also did not inform the Court about any possible further development in the proceedings.