characteristics related to the alleged victim’s vulnerable condition, because, apart from
being a minor and an adult with disabilities, he also had few financial resources to obtain
adequate rehabilitation. In this regard, the Court recalls that "the link between the
disability, on the one hand, and poverty and social exclusion, on the other, is direct and
significant.”343
202.
Therefore, if the judicial authorities had taken into account Sebastián Furlán’s
vulnerable condition, due to the special circumstances described above, it would have been
clear that this case called for a higher degree of diligence on the part of the judicial
authorities, since the main objective of the suit - which was to obtain compensation to cover
the debts that Sebastian’s family had accumulated over the years to provide him with
rehabilitation and the necessary therapies so as to lessen the negative effects of the page
of time- depended on the promptness of the proceeding. Likewise, the Court notes that
despite the agreement between the two medical expert reports regarding the need for
urgent treatment for Sebastián Furlan, the judge in the case failed to adopt timely measures
to ensure proper access to rehabilitation.
203.
Bearing in mind the foregoing, the Court considers that it is sufficiently proven that
the delay in the proceeding in this case had a significant and real impact on the juridical
situation of the alleged victim and the effect is, until today, irreversible, given that, e by
delaying the compensation he needed, he was unable to receive the treatment that could
have provided him with a better quality of life.
C.6)
Conclusion regarding reasonable time
204. Having analyzed the four elements of the test of a reasonable time (supra para.
152), the Inter-American Court concludes that the judicial authorities hearing the civil suit
for damages and the claim for compensation did not act with the due diligence or
promptness required by the vulnerable situation of Sebastián Furlan, and therefore
exceeded the reasonable time, in violation of the right to a fair trial established in Article
8(1), in relation to Articles 19 and 1(1) of the American Convention, to the detriment of
Sebastián Claus Furlan.
205. The Court notes that the Commission and the representatives alleged that the right
to a trial within a reasonable time was also violated to the detriment of his father, Mr.
Danilo Furlan and his mother, Mrs. Susana Fernández. In this regard, the Court considers
that the holder of the rights violated in this case was Sebastián Furlán and that his parents
acted on his behalf, not on their own behalf. Without detriment to the foregoing, the actions
and the participation of Mr. Danilo Furlan and Mrs. Susana Fernández during the suit for
damages shall be analyzed in detail in the chapter related to the right to personal integrity
and a fair trial of the relatives of Sebastián Furlán (infra paras. 245 to 266).
D)
Judicial protection and right to property
Arguments of the parties and of the Inter-American Commission
206. The Commission considered that “the execution of judgments is an intrinsic part of
the right to access to a judicial remedy.” It explained that “the right to property is not part
of the litis under examination in the instant case [, and therefore it] shall not analyze […]
the decision to execute the sentence in the form of bonds[….] it will analyze, however,
whether the State […] was in compliance with the obligations […] regarding effective
343
Cf. Case of Ximenes Lopes v. Brazil, para. 104.
65
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