38
received as a lawyer and notary for nine years, for a total of US$708,000.00
(seven hundred and eight thousand United States dollars).
The Commission’s arguments
89.
Under the general heading of “pecuniary damage”, the Commission indicated
the following in its briefs of August 31, 1998, and August 2, 1999:
a)
with regard to the loss of earnings of Anna Elizabeth Paniagua Morales,
it endorsed the calculations submitted by the victim’s next of kin and
underlined that the life expectancy of a woman in Guatemala was 46.53
additional years and that the victim had a daughter of five years of age. It
also established that the victim would have earned US$1,600.00 a month, for
the remaining years of her life expectancy, less 25% for personal use, and
plus interest;
b)
with regard to the other expenses, the Commission also endorsed the
information submitted by the victim’s next of kin.
The State’s arguments
90.
The State objected to the claims and calculations made by the next of kin of
Anna Elizabeth Paniagua Morales and the Commission, making the following
observations:
a)
with regard to the victim’s loss of earnings, it claimed that she was not
registered as an expert accountant in the Ministry of Public Finance, which
was an essential requirement for the exercise of that profession in Guatemala
and that, according to information from the Identity Card Registry of the
Municipality of Guatemala, the victim had stated that her profession was
“office assistant”, so that the calculation of loss of earning should be based on
that activity. In the absence of salary records, the minimum salary reported
by the Ministry of Labor and Social Insurance for 1988 should be used and
this was Q150.00 (one hundred and fifty quetzales) a month for an
administrative employee. It also indicated that the victim was not studying
economics at the Universidad de San Carlos at the time of the facts and that
the life expectancy for women who were born during the period 1960 to 1965
was 47.90 years, according to the National Institute of Statistics of
Guatemala; and
b)
with regard to the other expenses incurred by the victim’s next of kin,
it claimed that the alleged expenditure to learn the whereabouts of the victim
had not been adequately proven and that the expenses for the funeral were
excessive. With regard to the expenses defrayed by the Paniagua Morales
family, it had not been shown that these were the immediate consequence of
the principal fact. Lastly, with regard to the expenses of German Giovanni
Paniagua Morales, it stated that they were unreal in Guatemala.
The considerations of the Court
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