Austrian woman pretended to be the rightful owner of 10,000 hectares of forests in Retezat Mountains, Romania. On November 10, 2022, at the end of a trial started in 2009, the Hunedoara Court decided that the retrocession made in 2006 was illegal.

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  1. An Austrian wants 10,000 hectares in Retezat. The court left her without the huge, illegally obtained inheritance

    10.12.2022, Daniel Gută

    The magistrates in Hunedoara established that two Austrian women illegally obtained over ten thousand hectares in the Retezat Massif in 2006, but after the trial was over, the sentence – final – was challenged through an extraordinary appeal.

    Elisabeth Pongracz, one of the two Austrians who were illegally appropriated 10,000 hectares in Retezat, submitted through her lawyers, an appeal for annulment, against the final sentence recently given by the magistrates in Hunedoara, by which the alleged heirs of the Kendeffy family have left without the lands acquired in 2006.
    A new process for the Retezat domain

    According to the Code of Civil Procedure, the annulment appeal represents an extraordinary way of retraction attack, through which the parties can obtain the annulment of a court decision for non-compliance with procedural rules.

    The case was registered at the Hunedoara Court and will have its first court date on February 16, 2023.

    On November 10, 2022, at the end of a trial started in 2009, the Hunedoara Court decided, definitively, that the retrocession of huge areas of land in Retezat, to the alleged heirs of the Kendeffy family, were made illegally.

    Maria Kendeffy (deceased in 2016, aged 96) and her daughter Elisabeta Pongracz, both Austrian citizens who have never lived in Romania, illegally obtained property titles for over 10,000 hectares in the Retezat massif in 2006, according to the decision The Hunedoara Court , taken at the end of a trial started at the Hațeg Court in 2009 and completed after 13 years.
    Territories from the Retezat National Park, ceded to the Austrians

    On December 6, 2006, the County Commission for the Establishment of Land Ownership Rights, established on the basis of an order of the Prefect, issued three title deeds in the name of the two applicants, domiciled in Vienna, after determining that the Kendeffy family owned the properties requested in Retezat.

    Requests for compensation were submitted starting in November 2005, for lands identified within the localities of Petrila, Pui, Sarmizegetusa, Râu de Mori, Sântamaria Orlea.

    One year after submitting the applications, Maria Kendeffy and Elisabeta Pongracz received the titles for over 10,000 hectares of pastures, forests, alpine hollows, including the lands on which there are glacial lakes in the Retezat National Park and the Gemenele Scientific Reserve.

    In 2009, the Romanian Academy and the Romanian state through the Ministry of Finance complained about the illegality of the Austrians’ appropriation of 10,000 hectares in Retezat, and in 2020, the Hațeg Court ruled in their favor.

    The Hunedoara Court upheld the decision of the Hațeg Court, which was then contested by the Austrian representatives.

    The magistrates noted that the first court presented the arguments for which the alleged heirs of the Kendeffy family did not have the right to the lands in Retezat, because until the end of the 20s, based on the Law of 1921, the Romanian state had paid fair compensations to the former owners of the lands, following agreements and international processes.

    The Retezat file, completed after 13 years

    The two Austrians were appropriated in 2006 including lands from the Gemenele Scientific Reserve, the alienation of which was prohibited, the court also established.

    The magistrates determined that the Austrian women were not entitled to be declared heirs of the Kendeffy nobles. Maria Kendeffy, as the daughter-in-law of Gabor Kendeffy, needed an heir certificate or to be mentioned in the will in order to receive the title deeds, which was not proven.

    Even her daughter, Elisabeth Pongracz, could not be entitled to request the reconstitution of the ownership right over the lands in Retezat, as she did not have Romanian citizenship at the time of submitting the requests. According to the ascertaining certificate issued by the Romanian Embassy in Vienna, he acquired Romanian citizenship on September 9, 2009, after formulating the request for the reconstitution of the ownership right, the file states.

    “The court considers that as long as it was not proven that Pongracz Elisabeth had Romanian citizenship at the time of the request for reconstitution, she did not meet the condition required by art. 48 of Law 18/1991 and art. 44 of the Romanian Constitution. Therefore, given that the appellant did not have Romanian citizenship at the time of the request for reconstitution, she did not fulfill the condition of being a person entitled to reconstitution, which leads to the conclusion that the release of the property titles in her favor was carried out in non-compliance with the imperative provisions of Law 18/1991” , it is stated in the reasoning of the court’s decision, by which the Romanian state once again became the owner of the lands in Retezat.

    Until the middle of the 20th century, the Kendeffy family, known since the Middle Ages, owned extensive properties in Hategului and Retezat, but also in other regions of Transylvania.

    A report of the Court of Accounts from 2013, supported by archival documents, shows that the brothers Ludovic and Gabriel Kendeffy lost most of their properties after the Agrarian Reform of 1921, being compensated by the Romanian state, following the nationalization of the estates, with significant amounts.

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