Docket No. 533: Mary McGovern

Docket No. 533.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Patrick J. McGovern, individually and as Administrator of the Estate of Mary G. McGovern, Deceased, and James McGovern, Margaret McGovern Mee, Lucy McGovern Rallings, Loretta McGovern, and Patrick J. McGovern, Jr.,
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 Mary G. McGovern, an American national, nearly 22 years of age, was a passenger on and went down with the Lusitania. She was survived by a father, Patrick J. McGovern, then 48 years of age and a subject of Great Britain, a brother, Patrick J. McGovern, Jr., then 8 years of age and a subject of Great Britain, and was also survived by a brother, James, a sister, Lucy, a sister, Margaret, and a sister, Loretta, then 19, 17, 14, and 11 years of age respectively, all American nationals. The father, through naturalization, became an American national on October 7, 1921, and Patrick J. McGovern, Jr., then a minor, likewise became an American national on that date by virtue of the naturalization of his father.

The decedent entered the employ of the Westinghouse Lamp Company on February 8, 1911, prior to the death of her mother, which occurred on September 28, 1911, and left its employ on April 28, 1915, just before taking passage on the Lusitania. When she first entered the employ of the company she was paid at the rate of 12¢ per hour. When she left its employ she averaged about $12.50 per week. For about one and one-half years before sailing on the Lusitania the decedent lived with her aunt in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and, while her father and brothers and sisters also lived in Bloomfield, the decedent was not a member of her father’s household. The record wholly fails to disclose any contributions of any character made by the decedent to any of the claimants who were American nationals at the time of her death. No claim is made for the loss, if any, of the personal effects of decedent.

Applying the rules announced in the Lusitania Opinion, in Administrative Decision No. V, 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 not obligated to pay to the Government of the United States any amount on behalf of the claimants herein or any of them.

Done at Washington January 7, 1925.

EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.

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[a] Dated January 5, 1925.