s of the present case an action against the State lodged prior to Mr N.'s conviction could have been considered effective.
16. As to the second avenue we reiterate that, as is clear from the domestic courts' interpretation of the provisions of the Russian Civil Code on State liability, by obtaining a judicial award against police officer N. the applicant lost the right to claim compensation from the State (see paragraph 25 of the judgment). Having found that this remedy was no longer open to the applicant after he had obtained the judgment award against Mr N., we do not need to proceed with the analysis any further. However, we do not lose sight of the Government's implied argument that the applicant was responsible for the legal choices he made, in so far as he could have introduced an action jointly against Mr N. and the State after the latter's conviction instead of opting to become a civil party to the criminal case.
17. In this respect we would like to emphasise two points. Firstly, we are not convinced that the provisions of the Russian Civil Code, in particular Articles 150, 151, 1069 and 1070, which the domestic courts cited in dismissing the applicant's action (see paragraph 24 of the judgment above), afforded the applicant sufficient safeguards to prevent a misunderstanding as to the procedures for making use of the available remedies and the restrictions stemming from the simultaneous use of them. In that connection we consider that neither the wording of those provisions nor their legislative history could have given the applicant any idea what legal inferences the domestic courts would draw from his legal choice to introduce an action against Mr N. first. In other words, they gave him no reason to think that his action against Mr N. might result in his being deprived of standing to bring proceedings against the State in order to obtain a higher sum in compensation than he had been already awarded against Mr N. We note that neither the Government nor the domestic courts relied on any legal provision making clear the type of liability (subsidiary, joint and several, and so on) which the State bore for the actions of its officials in circumstances similar to those under examination. In particular, the courts did not substantiate their position that the applicant did not have the right in law to bring a civil claim against the State subject to the condition that in the new proceedings the compensation already awarded to him would be taken into account in order to determine whether he had received full and adequate redress. Therefore, we consider that the applicant could reasonably believe that it was possible to pursue an action in the domestic courts to claim compensation from the State even after he had been awarded damages to be paid by Mr N.
18. Secondly, we do not lose sight of the fact that the criminal proceedings against Mr N. were pending for more than two years and that it took the domestic courts almost another year to consider his action against the State. In view of the applicant's situation at that time, he cannot be criticised for pursuing the avenue which met his most urgent needs, that is, a civil claim within the criminal proceedings against Mr N., since he was entitled to think that if he were to introduce an action against Mr N. and be dissatisfied with the outcome he would not be deprived of his right to bring proceedings against the State.
19. To sum up, it is our submission that the combination of the factors examined above demonstrates that the applicant had neither a single remedy nor an aggregate of remedies satisfying the requirements of Article 13. Consequently, there has been a violation of that Convention provision.
20. Finally, we submit that the damages awarded under Article 41 of the Convention for non-pecuniary damage are far too low. Because we believe that there has been a violation of Article 13 of the
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