Docket No. 243: Lindon Bates, Jr.

Docket No. 243.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Lindell T. Bates and Josephine Bates,
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. A brief statement of the facts as disclosed by the records follows:

Lindon Bates, Jr., an American national, was a passenger on and went down with the Lusitania. While this is no place for a biographical sketch of his life, it is proper that this Commission should here add to the numerous tributes from representative men of many nations its tribute to him as a fine, wholesome, outstanding, and noble type of young American manhood. The loss which the world, the nation, and the members of the family sustained in his death cannot be measured by pecuniary standards. His bereaved mother’s real compensation lies in the knowledge of the fact that she gave to the world a son whose example was an inspiration to others to lead upright, useful, unselfish lives and who lived and died a man.

The basis of the award which this Commission is empowered to make is not the value of a life lost, nor is it a loss suffered by the decedent’s estate, but only the losses to claimants resulting from the death of the decedent in so far only as such losses are susceptible or measurement by pecuniary standards.

At the time of his death Lindon Bates, Jr., was 31 years of age. He was survived by his father, Lindon W. Bates, his mother, Josephine Bates, and his brother, Lindell T. Bates, all American nationals, then 56, 57, and 25 years of age respectively. A graduate of Yale, the deceased had been for some 10 years prior to his death associated with his father as a consulting engineer. His professional activities were not confined to the United States but took him to Russia, Central and South America, and to several of the countries of Western Europe. He diligently pursued his scientific studies and was a frequent contributor to engineering journals and the author of several books dealing with his profession. His father had established an enviable national and international reputation as an engineer and had planned that his son, who was interested with him in the Bates Engineering Company, should “carry on” in the family name and get the benefit of the reputation and clientele which had been years in the building. At the time of his death the deceased had an earning capacity of approximately $8,000 per annum. His prospects were bright. He had never married. His father, though still active, was not then robust, and by reason of his failing health the business, the principal load of which was being increasingly carried by the son, dwindled constantly until it failed in 1921, which the father suffered a stroke of paralysis; and he died in April, 1924, from another stroke, after a lingering illness of three years.

Mrs. Josephine Bates, mother of the deceased, resides with and is wholly dependent on her sole surviving child, Lindell T. Bates, a lawyer by profession, six years younger than deceased and with much less earning capacity, and the sole legatee under the will of the deceased made just before taking passage on the Lusitania.

At the time of his death Lindon Bates, Jr., was devoting and had for some past time been devoting practically his entire time to the work of Belgian relief. He was then en route to Europe to serve as an assistant to Herbert Hoover. From his own funds he had withdrawn and was taking with him cash requisite to defraying his personal expenditures for a considerable period, and there was lost with him $5,500 in cash and other personal property, in all amounting in value to $7,450.

Applying the principles and rules heretofore announced in the 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 (1) Josephine Bates the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from November 1, 1923, and (2) Lindell T. Bates the sum of seven thousand four hundred fifty dollars ($7,450.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from May 7, 1915.

Done at Washington September 19, 1924.

EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.

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[a] Dated February 14, 1924.