Docket No. 601.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Macpherson Crichton, individually and as Executor of the Estate of William Crichton, Deceased, and Antoinette K. C. Ashford and Elizabeth M. Crichton Clarke,
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.
From the record it appears that Mabel Gardner Crichton, an American national 42 years of age, was lost on the Lusitania. She was survived by her husband, William Crichton, then 49 years of age, to whom she had been married in London on August 24, 1910. The decedent had been divorced from a former husband and William Crichton had been divorced from a former wife, but so far as disclosed by the record there was no issue of either of the former marriages or of this marriage. Crichton and his wife continued to live in London and there the estate of the decedent was administered. The decedent was also survived by Elizabeth C. Gardner, her mother, then about 72 years of age, a resident of London and presumably a British subject, on whose behalf no claim is made.
William Crichton, the surviving husband of the deceased, died on December 16, 1916. He left a will bequeathing his entire estate to his brothers and sisters, all American nationals. His brother, Macpherson Crichton, was named and qualified as executor of his estate.
No claim is made for such personal effects and other property of Mabel Gardner Crichton as may have been lost with her on the Lusitania.
Applying the rules announced in the Lusitania Opinion and in the other decisions of this Commission 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 Macpherson Crichton as Executor of the Estate of William Crichton, Deceased, the sum of three thousand dollars ($3,000.00) 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 the claimants Macpherson Crichton, Antoinette K. C. Ashford, and Elizabeth M. Crichton Clarke.
Done at Washington January 7, 1925.
EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.
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[a] Dated December 22, 1924.
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