Docket No. 2217: Isaac Lehmann

Docket No. 2217.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Isaac Lehmann,
Claimant,

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.

Isaac Lehmann, an American national, then 35 years of age, was a passenger on the torpedoed Lusitania en route to Paris, France. When the vessel sank he was thrown into the water, where he remained some time before being rescued. His body was bruised and he suffered severe shock. He journeyed to London where he was confined to his room for some days. The record is very meager with respect to the extent, nature, and duration of his disability and the resultant expenses incurred by him.

The claimant contends that he was en route to Paris to negotiate a sale of a large quantity of cloth to the French Government for military uniforms, that his injuries detained him in London, and that when he reached Paris all opportunity for negotiating such a contract had passed. The claim is made that Germany’s act in sinking the Lusitania was the cause of claimant’s failure to procure the contract which he was seeking to procure and which he expected would yield him a large profit. Under the previous decisions of this Commission it is clear that the damages, if any, resulting from claimant’s failure to procure this contract are too contingent, uncertain, speculative, and remote to furnish a solid basis on which to rest a claim against Germany.

The claimant had with him on the Lusitania personal effects which were lost.

Applying the rules announced in the Lusitania Opinion 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 Isaac Lehmann the sum of six thousand dollars ($6,000.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from November 1, 1923.

Done at Washington January 7, 1925.

EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.

—-

[a] Dated December 17, 1924.