Docket No. 2562.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Thomas Kelly, Margaret Kelly, and Thomas Kelly as Administrator of the Estate of Margaret S. Kelly, 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 National Commissioners[a] certifying their disagreement.
From the record it appears that Margaret S. Kelly, an American national, then 35 years of age, was a passenger on and went down with the Lusitania. She was survived by her father, Thomas Kelly, and her mother, Margaret Kelly, then 58 and 54 years of age respectively; and also by two married sisters and by four other brothers and sisters who were then minors. The decedent, her mother, and her four minor brothers and sisters were all members of her father’s household. The father was a pattern maker in the employ of the Allegheny Foundry Company. The decedent had for more than 12 years been in the employ of the Pittsburgh Lamp and brass Company as a clerk and stenographer. For the last four years before her death she was paid a salary of $85 per month. The record indicates that from this salary she made contributions to her father somewhat in excess of the reasonable value of her board and lodgings.
The decedent was born in Ireland but came to American when she was 12 years of age and, through the naturalization of her father, became an American citizen. Her purpose in taking passage on the Lusitania is not disclosed by the record, nor does it appear whether or not it was her purpose to return to America, resume her employment, and again become a member of her father’s household.
No claim is put forward on behalf of the brothers and sisters of the decedent or for the value of personal effects which may have been lost with the decedent.
Applying the rules announced in the Lusitania Opinion and in the other decisions of this 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 Thomas Kelly and Margaret Kelly jointly the sum of three thousand five hundred dollars ($3,500.00) 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 Thomas Kelly as Administrator of the Estate of Margaret S. Kelly, Deceased.
Done at Washington January 14, 1925.
EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.
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[a] Dated December 22, 1924.
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