Widow sued husband’s relative for wrongful death

A widow whose husband was reportedly killed by his relative yesterday filed a civil action in court seeking an unspecified amount of damages for her husband’s wrongful death.

Engracia R. Babauta, as personal representative of the estate of Jose B. Babauta, brought the action against Jesus M. Babauta, Oscar R. Babauta, Colt’s Manufacturing Co. Inc. and five other unnamed defendants.

Filed by lawyer Bruce Berline, the complaint charged the defendants with assault, battery, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among others.

The action was based on an incident occurred exactly two years ago yesterday in As Matuis while Jose was driving his van along with his wife Grace.

They were heading to Kristo Rai church in Garapan and took the road passing Oscar’s residence in As Matuis.

Oscar was sitting inside his pick-up truck when the van approached his residence, afterwhich, he started shouting explicatives at Jose as they drove by.

According to the complaint, Oscar then proceeded to follow the van and after a short distance, he pulled his truck up alongside the van and violently crashed into it.

About the time the truck struck the van, a bullet was fired hitting Jose in the left eye and resulted to his death.

As a result of the injury, Jose lost control of the van and it crashed into a drainage ditch causing Grace to suffer injuries and severe emotional distress as a result of the truck impacting the car and as a result of witnessing her husband shot down in front of her.

The complaint said Oscar did not even stop to render any assistance to Jose or the passengers of the van.

After watching the van crash off the road, Oscar allegedly sped away from the scene, returning to his house.

The rift between the two families started since 1995 because of an incident that occurred between Jose and Oscar’s father, Jesus.

Grace claimed that Jesus and Jose had a verbal confrontation sometime in 1995 at a cockfight in Talafofo. Since Jesus was intoxicated at that time, he fell down and Jose helped him up.

After the verbal confrontation, Jesus allegedly returned home and falsely reported to certain family members including Oscar that Jose had tried to physically assault him and did assault him.

Jesus knew that such story could incite certain family members including Oscar to violence against Jose.

The incident between Jose and Oscar led to the latter’s arrest and awaiting trial for the charge of murder in the first degree. A jury trial has been set for June.

Grace, on the other hand, is asking general, consequential and punitive damages, medical costs for injuries she and Jose suffered, funeral and burial costs for Jose, loss of earnings and earnings capacity and damages for pain and suffering.