Docket No. 279
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Winnifred Houghton Brown Keay individually and as Administratrix of the Estate of William H. H. Brown, Deceased, and Angus M. Brown and Wm. H. H. Brown, Jr.,
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:
William H. H. Brown, an American national, 34 years of age, was a passenger on and went down with the Lusitania. He was survived by a widow, Winnifred Houghton Brown, and two sons, Angus M. and Wm. H. H. Brown, Jr., aged 27, 4, and 1 years, respectively. In October, 1917, the widow married Elmer S. Keay, an American national, secretary and treasurer of a wholesale coal company of New York. To her was born, in September, 1918, a daughter, the issue of this last marriage.
The decedent was the proprietor of a mill supply and rubber goods business at Buffalo, New York, from which he earned something more than $5,000 per annum. After his death this business, of which the good will was presumably the principal asset, was sold for $8,000. The decedent was physically strong, active in business, industrious, and respected in the community in which he lived. His wife and sons were wholly dependent on him for support.
No claim is put forward for loss of personal property which decedent may have had with him at the time of his death.
Applying the rules announced in the Lusitania Opinion to the facts in this case 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) Winnifred Houghton Brown Keay individually the sum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00), (2) Angus M. Brown the sum of fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000.00), and (3) William H. H. Brown, Jr., the sum of fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000.00), all three amounts to bear interest at the rate of five per cent per annum form November 1, 1923; and that the Government of Germany is not obligated to pay any amount on behalf of the Administratrix of the Estate of William H. H. Brown, Deceased.
Done at Washington February 21, 1924.
EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.
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[a] Dated February 14, 1924.
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