Docket No. 466.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Virginia Loney Gamble, United States Trust Company and George McKesson Brown, Executors of the Estate of Catherine [sic, Catharine] Wolfe Loney, Deceased, and Mary B. Chamberlaine, Executrix of the Estate of Allen D. Loney, Deceased,
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 German Commissioner[a] certifying their disagreement. A brief statement of the facts as disclosed by the records follows:
Allen D. Loney, an American national, 43 years of age, with his wife, Catherine [sic] Wolfe Loney, 38 years of age, and only child, Virginia Loney (now Virginia Loney Gamble, by marriage with Robert Gamble, an American national, on April 27, 1918), then lacking a few days of being 16 years of age, took passage at New York May 1, 1915, on the Lusitania for Liverpool. When the Lusitania was torpedoed Mr. and Mrs. Loney were lost but their daughter, a claimant herein, was rescued.
Mr. Loney was an experienced broker and bond salesman with an earning capacity of more than $10,000 per annum. For several years prior to his death Mr. Loney had devoted most of his time to assisting his wife in the management of her estate and to the attention and training of their daughter and only child. At the inception of the World War Mr. Loney was in England and shortly thereafter gave up all business activities and joined the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps in France. In April 1915, he returned to the United States for his wife and daughter. Mrs. Loney had arranged to take charge of and manage a hospital for convalescent soldiers in England.
As they planned to remain abroad for a considerable time, each member of the family had on the Lusitania personal effects of considerable value. The property belonging to Mr. Loney was of the value of $1,235, Mrs. Loney’s property was of the value of $11,650, and that of her daughter (now Mrs. Gamble, claimant herein) was of the value of $1,700. Claim is also made for expenses incurred by the executors of Mrs. Loney’s estate directly resulting from the torpedoing of the Lusitania. Some of these items, including legal expenses and disbursements in preparing and presenting this claim, are rejected, but items of expense totaling $3,800 are allowed.
Mr. Loney died intestate, but his daughter, Mrs. Gamble, has inherited his entire estate, which does not appear to have been large. The claimant Mrs. Gamble was the sole legatee of her mother’s large estate and came into possession of it upon attaining the age of 21 years on May 19, 1920. Both Mr. and Mrs. Loney were physically strong, active socially and in civic affairs, and devoted to the rearing and education of their daughter and only child. This claimant has sustained substantial pecuniary loss in being deprived, at the tender age of 16 years, of the care and supervision of both parents.
Applying the rules announced in the Lusitania Opinion and in other 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) Mrs. Virginia Loney Gamble 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 the further sum of one thousand seven hundred dollars ($1,700.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from May 7, 1915; (2) the United States Trust Company and George McKesson Brown, Executors of the Estate of Catherine Wolfe Loney, the sum of fifteen thousand four hundred fifty dollars ($15,450.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from May 7, 1915; and (3) Mary B. Chamberlaine, Executrix of the Estate of Allen D. Loney, the sum of one thousand two hundred thirty-five dollars ($1,235.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from May 7, 1915.
Done at Washington February 21, 1924.
EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.
—-
[a] Dated February 14, 1924.
You must log in to post a comment.