Docket No. 2053.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Mary Ellen Carroll and Edward A. Adler, Administrator of the Estates of Margaret Kenny and Mary Bridget Kenny, 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 two National Commissioners[a] certifying their disagreement.
Margaret Kenny, born in Ireland in 1884, emigrated from Ireland to Boston in 1907, and there in June, 1911, married Peter Kenny, a native of Ireland, who remained a British subject. To them one child, Mary Bridget Kenny, was born in July, 1912. Peter Kenny died May 1, 1913. After his death his widow, with her child, made her home with her sister, Mary Ellen Carroll, a claimant herein, wife of Patrick Carroll, a naturalized American citizen. Mrs. Carroll testifies that Mrs. Kenny assisted her in keeping a boarding house which netted Mrs. Kenny an income of about $40 per week, out of which she paid Mrs. Carroll about $25 per week to assist the latter in the support of her family, consisting of herself, her husband, and eleven children. These contributions were doubtless made mainly in the nature of compensation for the home furnished Mrs. Kenny and her child by her sister.
Margaret Kenny, then 32 years of age, and her daughter, Mary Bridget Kenny, then nearly 3 years of age, were lost with the Lusitania. The former was a British subject. The latter was born in the United States. Margaret Kenny died intestate. The claimant Edward A. Adler was appointed, qualified, and is the acting administrator of her estate. Her mother, a British subject, a native of Ireland and there residing, was her sole heir-at-law and next of kin.
A claim is put forward by the administrator of the estate of Margaret Kenny for the value of the personal effects and cash belonging to her lost with the Lusitania. This property was British owned and impressed with the nationality of its owner. On its owner’s death the claim for its loss passed, by inheritance, to the mother of the decedent, a British national (who died in 1917). This part of the claim can not, therefore, be here asserted by the United States against Germany.
But to the extent that Mrs. Carroll, an American national, suffered pecuniary damages resulting from the death of her sister, who was a member of her household, a claim therefor may be asserted by the United States on her behalf (see this Commission’s Administrative Decision No. VI, Decisions and Opinions, pages 208-211).
Applying the rules announced in the Lusitania Opinion, in Administrative Decisions No. V and No. VI, 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 Mary Ellen Carroll the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from November 1, 1923; and further decrees that the Government of Germany is not obligated to pay to the Government of the United States any amount on behalf of Edward A. Adler, Administrator of the Estates of Margaret Kenny and Mary Bridget Kenny, Deceased.
Done at Washington February 25, 1925.
EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.
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[a] Dated February 11, 1925.
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