Docket No. 1263.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Cyril Herbert Emanuel Bretherton,
Claimant,
v.
GERMANY.
PARKER, Umpire, rendered the decision of the Commission.
This case is before the Umpire for decision on a certificate of the two National Commissioners[a] certifying their disagreement.
Cyril Herbert Emanuel Bretherton, claimant herein, then 35 years of age, was on May 7, 1915, a naturalized American citizen residing at Santa Monica, California. His wife, Norah Annie Bretherton, then 32 years of age, with her son, Paul, aged 3 years, and her daughter, Elizabeth, aged 15 months, were passengers on the torpedoed Lusitania. Mrs. Bretherton and her son were rescued. Her daughter was lost. While a claim is made for personal injuries suffered by Mrs. Bretherton and her son, no evidence is offered in support of such claim. The record contains an affidavit of Mrs. Bretherton dated September 7, 1920, with respect to the loss of her daughter and the value of the property which she had with her placed at $1,500. There is no evidence in this affidavit, or elsewhere in the record, that either she or her son had suffered any personal injuries. In the original memorial bearing date of January 3, 1916, to the American Department of State, signed by claimant, who is a lawyer and journalist, claim is made for $10,000 damages resulting from the death of his daughter and $400 damages, the value of property lost, but no mention is made of any personal injury to his wife or son. There is in the record an assignment by claimant’s wife to him of any cliam that she may have for damages of every nature suffered by her connected with the sinking of the Lusitania, and the claim here asserted is for all damages suffered by both Mr. and Mrs. Bretherton, resulting from the death of their daughter, the loss of property, and personal injuries alleged to have been suffered by Mrs. Bretherton.
The evidence with respect to the value of the property lost is most unsatisfactory. It is variously estimated at $400, $1,500, and $4,115.
Applying the rules announced in the Lusitania Opinion and in the other decisions of this Commission to the facts as disclosed by the record herein, the Commission decrees that under the Treaty of Berlin of August 25, 1921, and in accordance with its terms the Government of Germany is obligated to pay to the Government of the United States on behalf of Cyril Herbert Emanuel Bretherton the sum of seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from November 1, 1923, and the further sum of one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from May 7, 1915.
Done at Washington February 25, 1925.
EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.
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[a] Dated February 6, 1925.
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