Factual background
The author states that he fled the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in September 1951. On 15 March 1960 he obtained the citizenship of the United States of America and lost his Czechoslovakian citizenship, in accordance with the Bilateral Treaty of Naturalisation of 1928. He regained Czech citizenship on 10 June 2000.
By a resolution of the People’s Court of Law in Pacov of 28 April 1953, the author’s property passed to the State. By Government Order No. 15/1959 and a decision of the Pelhrimov District National Committee of 13 July 1961, the property until then owned by the author’s mother also passed to the State.
Following the enactment of Act No. 229/1991, which allowed for the restitution of agricultural property confiscated by the communist regime, on 26 January 1993 and again on 25 September 1995, the author and his brother filed an application for the restitution of both his and his family’s property, which consisted of a flour mill, fields, meadows and woods of about 36 hectares in Kresin (district Pelhrimov). On 23 April 1996, the Pelhrimov District Authority rejected the application on the ground that the petitioners were not citizens of the Czech Republic and thus did not meet the condition laid down in section 4 of the Act.
Upon appeal filed by the author and his brother, the Supreme Court, by decision of 19 August 1996, referred the case to the Ceske Budejovice Regional Court. On 18 September 1996, the Regional Court quashed the challenged decision and referred the case back to the District Authority for decision. On 4 June 1997, the District Authority again rejected the author’s claim on the ground that he and his brother did not meet the condition of citizenship.
After the author regained Czech citizenship, he and his brother again requested, by application of 26 September 2000, restitution of the family property. On 16 October 2000, the District Authority rejected the application for having been filed after 31 January 1993, the deadline for applications fixed in the law.
The author states that he is the only heir to the family property since his brother’s death in 2001.