The Zelić Family Registers Ownership of Their Field After Half a Century

Ivan Zelić from Kapela Ravenska has acquired the right to register as the owner of a field measuring 1 morgen and 1330 square fathoms after more than 50 years.

The Municipal Court in Bjelovar ruled on Friday that the defendant, the Republic of Croatia, must delete ownership of the aforementioned property within 15 days and simultaneously register Ivan Zelić as the owner, as well as reimburse him for legal costs amounting to 7800 kuna.

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Zelić and his predecessors (previous rights holder) have been using the field since October 26, 1963, when they exchanged it for other properties with the Agricultural Cooperative Combine Križevci. The properties were exchanged because the Combine wanted to consolidate its parcels, and the Zelić family was promised that the exchange would be carried out through the land registry.

“For the land that the late Ivan Zelić and his father purchased, they do not have contracts, as that land went directly to the Combine, but they paid for it. Their land was of slightly better quality, so they received a bit more land of poorer quality from the Combine,” said witness Stjepan Đuran, whose testimony was accepted by the court.

“The court believes that the witnesses are of such an age that the facts they testified about are well known to them, and moreover, they are witnesses who are not related to the plaintiff, so they are certainly not interested in the outcome of this dispute, and since they testified consistently, very convincingly, logically, and circumstantially, the court fully trusted them. Furthermore, the defendant did not cast doubt on the objectivity of their testimonies,” the court states.

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From the witness statements, the court concludes that the plaintiff, together with his legal predecessor – his father, has been in possession of the property since 1964, thus for about 52 years until the filing of the lawsuit, and that he entered into possession based on the exchange with the then Combine, states the reasoning of the non-final judgment.