4.  The first applicant was born in 1964 and lives in Korsakov, Sakhalin Region. The second applicant was born in 1948 and lives in Moscow. 5.  The applicants sued the Trest Zhilishchnogo Hozyajstva municipal company (МП «Трест жилищного хозяйства» – hereinafter “the municipal company”) in two unrelated sets of civil proceedings. 6.  On 22 January 2003 the Korsakovskiy Town Court of the Sakhalin Region (hereinafter “Town Court”) granted the claim by the first applicant for salary arrears and ordered the municipal company to pay him 1,270 euros (EUR). The judgment became final on the same date, but remained unenforced. 7.  On 1 March 2004 the Town Court granted the claim by the second applicant for compensation for the damage to her health sustained as a result of the acts of one of the municipal company’s employees. The court awarded the applicant EUR 16,256. The judgment became final on 25 May 2004. It was partly enforced in 2004 and in 2006-07; the applicant received EUR 11,888. 8.  On 7 May 2007, in the course of insolvency proceedings in respect of the municipal company, the Commercial Court of the Sakhalin Region (hereinafter “the Commercial Court”) granted the second applicant’s claim for compensation of lost income and dismissed the remainder of the applicant’s claims. She was awarded EUR 44,044. The second applicant appealed. On 18 July 2007 the Commercial Court discontinued the appeal proceedings on the grounds that the municipal company had been liquidated. The Commercial Court relied on Articles 49 § 3 and 63 § 8 of the Civil Code of Russia as interpreted by the Plenary Supreme Commercial Court in Ruling No. 29 of 15 December 2004 (see paragraphs 13-14 below). 9.  The municipal company was incorporated as a municipal unitary company set up by a decision of the local authority and provided heating supply and maintenance services in respect of municipal housing. The municipal company had “the right of economic control” (право хозяйственного ведения) over the assets allocated to it by the local authority in order to carry out its statutory activities. 10.  According to the second applicant, on 27 April 2002 the local authority withdrew most of the assets from the municipal company’s economic control. The assets were subsequently transferred to a newly created company; the debts remained with the municipal company. 11.  On 27 September 2005 the municipal company was declared insolvent and it was put into liquidation. On 7 May 2007 the Commercial Court ended the liquidation proceedings.