80.
On December 10, 2004, the Larrabeiti Yáñez siblings filed a complaint appeal (recurso de queja) before
the Supreme Court alleging, inter alia, that the judgment appealed lacks any elements of proof that were
expressly invoked.71 On September 27, 2005 the Supreme Court found the appeal inadmissible based on Article
280 of the Federal Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure. The single preambular paragraph of that decision
stated: “That the extraordinary appeal, whose denial gives rise to this appeal, is inadmissible (Article 280 of
the Federal Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure). Therefore, the appeal is dismissed. Notice shall be given
and, in due course, it is archived.”72
2.
Case File No. 14.846/96
81.
According to the allegations by the parties, on October 15, 2002, the Federal Court of First Instance for
Administrative Disputes convicted the national state to payment of US$600,000 in damages, in addition to
payment of US$90,000 for professional fees and costs. Regarding this, the judgment established that “the
incident leading to the damage never came to an end […] Actually, the incident producing the damage is
precisely the disappearance, which is one single circumstance that reaches up to the present.”73
82.
In the court of second instance, on November 4, 2004, the Third Chamber of the Federal Court for
Administrative Disputes partially ruled on the complaint in favor of Victoria Larrabeiti Yáñez and convicted the
national state to pay 250,000 pesos, plus interest since September 26, 1976, as compensation for the damages
stemming from the forced disappearance of her father and mother.74 According to the petitioner, in view of
interest accruing from September 26, 1976 to the year 2004, compensation amounted to about US$3.3
million.75 This judgment also ruled the applicability of the statute of limitations for the action filed regarding
Anatole because two years had elapsed since he had become of legal age, which is the delay indicated in Article
4037 of the Civil Code.76
83.
Against this decision, the siblings filed an extraordinary appeal before the Supreme Court of Justice of
the Nation (Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación, hereinafter CSJN) and the state filed an ordinary appeal with
the same Court on the basis of the legal framework in force at the time, which made it possible to file an ordinary
appeal with the CSJN on behalf of the national state when it was the respondent and when it involved a
compensation above a certain amount.77 In this appeal, the siblings Larrabeiti Yáñez alleged that:78
[…] the delay for the two-year statute of limits can only be calculated as of June 2, 1997, the date on
which the judgment of absence of forced disappearance was issued in accordance with the terms of Law
24.321, […] which the civil lawsuit cannot begin to prescribe because the offenses that gave rise to it are
crimes against humanity for which there is no statute of limitations, [….] that the compensation amount
recognized by the court in favor of Claudia Victoria Larrabeiti Yáñez is arbitrary because it was set
without substantiation in the briefs of the case when it omitted, among other items, the material damage
caused by the seizure of the family home [and] that Law 24.411 constitutes partial reparation, which in
particular does not include moral suffering personally experienced by the complainants as a result of the
events that led to the case.
Annex XX. Complaint Appeal of December 10, 2004, filed in Case No. 24,518/98 before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. Annex
12 of the initial petition of November 11, 2005.
72 Annex XX. Judgment of the Supreme Court of the Nation Case 24,518/98 “Larrabeiti Yáñez Anatole Alejandro and one other v. StateInterior re/Damages” of September 27, 2005. Annex 13 of the initial petition of November 11, 2005.
73 Brief from the petitioner, July 19, 2011, p. 5.
74 Rulings of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, Ledger 330, Volume 4. Anatole Alejandro Larrabeiti Yáñez et al. v. Nation of
Argentina, October 30, 2007, p. 4594. Available at: https://sj.csjn.gov.ar
75 Brief from the petitioner, July 19, 2011, p. 6.
76 Rulings of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, Ledger 330, Volume 4. Anatole Alejandro Larrabeiti Yáñez et al. v. Nation of
Argentina, October 30, 2007, p. 4596. Available at: https://sj.csjn.gov.ar
77 Rulings of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, Ledger 330, Volume 4. Anatole Alejandro Larrabeiti Yáñez et al. v. Nation of
Argentina, October 30, 2007, p. 4596. Available at: https://sj.csjn.gov.ar
78 Rulings of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, Ledger 330, Volume 4. Anatole Alejandro Larrabeiti Yáñez et al. v. Nation of
Argentina, October 30, 2007, p. 4596. Available at: https://sj.csjn.gov.ar
71