Docket No. 622.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Roland Anderson, individually and as Guardian of Barbara Winnifred Anderson,[1]
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.
Roland Anderson, a native of England, emigrated to the United States in 1910. In June, 1911, he married Emily M. Pybus, also a British subject. To them was born a daughter, Barbara Winnifred, on June 15, 1912, at Derby, Connecticut, in which State they had resided since their marriage. Roland Anderson became a naturalized citizen of the United States but not until December 27, 1918.
Mrs. Anderson and her daughter were passengers on the Lusitania. Both were rescued after most distressing experiences and after suffering long immersion in the cold water, exposure in an open boat, brusies on their bodies, and severe shock to their nervous systems. From the personal injuries sustained by Mrs. Anderson never recovered. She was delivered of a son, Frank, born in England September 30, 1915, who died March 16, 1916. Mrs. Anderson died March 11, 1917, aged 28 years. Her death is directly attributable to the injuries she received when the Lusitania was sunk.
Barbara, who was at that time a child not quite three years of age, has never completely recovered from the nervous shock she then received.
There were lost with the Lusitania personal effects belonging to Mrs. Anderson of the value of $580, and the claimant Roland Anderson has paid certain bills for services rendered Mrs. Anderson by physicians and nurses and for her funeral expenses. The property lost was impressed with her British nationality of its owner and the expenses were incurred and paid by a British subject. Under the Treaty of Berlin these items can furnish no basis for a claim put forward by the United States on behalf of its national agent against Germany.
Neither can the damages suffered by Roland Anderson for the death of his wife and son be here put forward as a claim against Germany, for, at the time of the sinking of the Lusitania and at the time of the death of his wife and son, Roland Anderson was a British subject.
But a claim may be put forward here by the United States on behalf of Barbara Anderson, born an American national, for damages suffered by her resulting from the loss of her mother and from her own personal injuries.
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 Roland Anderson as Guardian of Barbara Winnifred Anderson the sum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00) 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 Roland Anderson individually.
Done at Washington February 25, 1925.
EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.
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[a] Dated February 11, 1925.
53281°–25—-36
[1] The correct spellings are “Rowland” and “Winifred.” The names here are as they were spelled in the original court docket.
