The family of a 20-year-old youth stabbed to death on a Ħamrun street almost five years ago have obtained a €500,000 garnishee order for damages against his alleged murderers. 

Silvio and Liza Pace filed a joint action along with their six children against father and son duo, Joseph Grech and his son Kurt who currently stand accused of stabbing 20-year-old Brandon Pace in a violent brawl that broke out in Giovanni Barbara Street, one Sunday evening back in April 2017.

The knife fight was allegedly triggered by a heated telephone exchange earlier that afternoon between Kurt’s former partner and his mother over the estranged couple’s son.

Four years after that fatal incident and while criminal proceedings are still pending against the accused, the victim’s family filed an action for damages against the Grechs, securing their claims by means of a precautionary garnishee order to the tune of €500,000.

Accused try to block withdrawal of funds

The Grechs reacted by filing an application calling for the revocation of that warrant and authorization to withdraw bank funds deposited in the court registry. 

In the first place, the Grechs argued that the applicants were not legitimately entitled to file the action for damages, since Brandon was a father and therefore his successors were his children rather than his parents and siblings.

But the victim’s family rebutted that Brandon had died intestate and was not registered as father on any birth certificate. The applicants were therefore his legitimate successors, they said. 

On this issue, the First Hall, Civil Court, presided over by Mr Justice Robert Mangion observed that it was for the Grechs to prove that the alleged victim was survived by children and they could easily have done so by producing any relative birth certificate. 

Failing this, their argument was rejected at this stage without prejudice to the parties’ rights should it be proved otherwise during the course of the proceedings. 

Secondly, the Grechs argued that the €500,000 figure was not prima facie justified since no explanation was provided as to how the applicants had calculated that sum, nor were any financial statements of the deceased produced in evidence.

However, the Pace family rebutted that the amount was a “very realistic” sum considering the victim’s age.

Basing calculations on a working life expectancy of 44 years at a €17,000 annual income, the sum would have totalled €748,000 but it had been reduced to €500,000.

The court observed that for the purpose of the precautionary warrant it sufficed for the applicants to have a legitimate right to file the action. 

As for the Grechs’ argument that the applicants had another warrant to secure their claims, the court observed that a precautionary warrant of prohibitory injunction had been revoked and thus there was no other adequate guarantee to secure the Pace family’s claims.

In light of these considerations, the court rejected the Grechs’ arguments and confirmed the garnishee order.