Docket No. 288: Jane Worden

Docket No. 288

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Charles E. Worden, individually and as Executor of the Estate of Jane Worden, Deceased,

Claimants,

v.

GERMANY.

PARKER, Umpire, rendered the decision of the Commission.

This case is before the Umpire for decision on a certificate of the American Commissioner and the German Commissioner[a] certifying their disagreement. A brief statement of the facts as disclosed by the record follows:

In September, 1886, the claimant, Charles E. Worden, then a citizen of Great Britain, 47 years of age, married Jane T. Goodchild, a native of Ireland, then 26 years of age. There was no issue of this marriage. The claimant and his wife became American citizens by his naturalization September 28, 1914. The claimant’s wife was a passenger on and went down with the Lusitania. Claimant and his wife had long resided in Lowell, Massachusetts, where he followed his trade of job carpentry, yielding an income of from $1,500 to $2,000 per annum, while she, in addition to discharging the duties of housekeeper, did work as a dressmaker yielding her an income of approximately $1,000 per annum. The decedent owned the home which she and her husband occupied, upon which there was some encumbrance and which with a small amount of personal property passed to claimant under her will, in which he was named as executor. Shortly after the death of his wife the health and strength of the claimant became so impaired that he has been unable to pursue his trade. He is living with his widowed sister in Lowell.

There was lost with Mrs. Worden personal property of the value of $650.00.

Applying the principles and rules announced in the Lusitania Opinion and in other decisions of the Commission to the facts as disclosed by the record, 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 (1) Charles W. Worden individually the sum of seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500.00) with interest thereon at the rate of fiver per cent per annum from November 1, 1923, and (2) Charles E. Worden, Executor of the Estate of Jane Worden, Deceased, the sum of six hundred fifty dollars ($650.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from May 7, 1915.

Done at Washington February 21, 1924.

EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.

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[a] Dated February 14, 1924.