Docket No. 4065.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Mary O’Brien, et al.,
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.
Owen Connelly, 51 years of age, was employed as a fireman [listed as “trimmer” in the crew manifest] on the Lusitania and was lost with her. Both he and his wife, Delia, were born British subjects. They married in New York City October 5, 1892. All of their children were born in the United States. In May, 1906, the decedent declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States but never admitted to citizenship. His widow, Delia Connelly, a claimant herein, continues [to be] a British subject, although it is alleged that on February 24, 1916, she declared her intention to become an American citizen. No award can here be made on her behalf.
At the time of Connelly’s death his wages were $25 per week with board and lodgings furnished him on the steamship where he worked. He had perfected arrangements to quit the sea and take employment with a building contractor at an increase of wages. The record indicates that the decedent was a hard working man contributing nearly his entire earnings to the support of his wife and children. Two of his daughters, Margaret Ernest and Mary O’Brien, married prior to Connelly’s death and were no longer members of his household. A third daughter, Annie I. Monahan, has since married but the date of the marriage and the nationality of her husband are not disclosed by the record, and it is impossible from the record to determine whether her claim for damages is one which falls within the terms of the Treaty of Berlin. The son Owen was old enough to be self-sustaining at the time of his father’s death. The three younger children, Nora, Andrew, and Francis Augusta, aged 12, 10, and 5½ years respectively, were at that time wholly dependent upon their father for support.
Applying the rules announced in the Lusitania Opinion, in Administrative Decision 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 (1) Nora Connelly, a minor, the sum of one thousand dollars ($1,000.00), (2) Andrew Connelly, a minor, the sum of one thousand dollars ($1,000.00), and (3) Francis Augusta Connelly, a minor, the sum of one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500.00), with interest on each of said sums 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 the other claimants herein or any of them.
Done at Washington March 5, 1925.
EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.
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[a] Dated February 11, 1925.
do we know if the krauts made due on their financial obligations to our predecessors and if so, what happened to the dough?
that 1 grand, compounded at a 5% rate of interest from 1923 is now worth approximately 10 million dollars!
To be honest I don’t know the answer to that question. Survivor Barbara Anderson said that she knew nothing of the money that was supposedly given to her, so probably not.