Docket No. 1332.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Scott Turner,
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.
From the record it appears that Scott Turner, an American national, then 34 years of age, was a passenger on the Lusitania when it was torpedoed. He was thrown into the water, where he remained, supported only by a life-belt, for four or five hours before he was rescued. He sustained not only great shock but numerous cuts and bruises on his body, leg, thigh, and face. His right knee was badly wrenched and swollen; his left arm dislocated at the shoulder and the ligaments so torn as to make it practically useless for more than a year, leaving the muscles of the left shoulder atrophied, and its use has never been completely restored. His nose was broken, leaving the base much broader than formerly, disfiguring him, making breathing difficult, impairing his sense of smell, and leaving him susceptible to infection and nasal and bronchial disorders from which he has ever since suffered.
While the record does not in terms so state, the inference is that the claimant is a bachelor. He is by profession a mining engineer. Being without home or headquarters, he was taking with him on the Lusitania equipment and some personal supplies designed to last for several years. He was en route first to England, thence to Norway, and thence to the Island of Spitsbergen to develop and operate mines for a company with which he had a contract for a small fixed annual salary plus a bonus of 5% of the company’s net profits. The record establishes beyond question that the claimant was thoroughly equipped by education and training for the work upon which he was entering.
Following the sinking of the Lusitania the claimant was detained in England for some days because of his injuries. He then journeyed to Norway, but was unable to leave there for the Island of Spitsbergen until September, and even then his injuries prevented his actively engaging in field operations. Finally he was compelled to abandon the work and return to the United States. In 1916 he contracted to serve as chief engineer a company operating in South America. He was to receive a small fixed annual salary and a percentage of the net profits from operations. The claim is made that because of his impaired physical condition and reduced stamina he was unable advantageously to conduct field operations and as a consequence these operations were not successful, to his great pecuniary loss.
The contracts undertaken by the claimant, first in Spitsbergen and then in South America, were highly speculative in their nature and the record does not afford any satisfactory basis for measuring the pecuniary loss sustained by claimant in these unsuccessful ventures. Neither is there any satisfactory evidence that the failure of these ventures is attributable to the injuries received by claimant in the sinking of the Lusitania. The scarcity of tonnage and the difficulty of transporting coal through the war-zone may well explain the failure to operate the coal mines to their normal capacity.
On April 30, 1918 the claimant was appointed a Lieutenant (Senior Grade) in the United States Naval Reserve Force and served until January 12, 1919, as Special Production Officer in the Great Lakes District with headquarters at Cleveland, Ohio. No physical disability was noted upon his entering the service. The claimant explains this by stating that this physical examination was “perfunctory”.
That claimant’s injuries were severe and in some measure permanent, resulting in substantial pecuniary damage to the claimant, there can be no doubt. That he has long since been able successfully to practise his profession, although perhaps not so actively as formerly in field operations necessitating physical exposure, is equally clear.
The medical, hospital, and other expenses incurred by claimant in England made necessary by his injuries, together with the loss of his wardrobe, equipment, and other personal effects which he had with him on the Lusitania, aggregate in amount $3,700.
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 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 Scott Turner the sum of fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from November 1, 1923, and the further sum of three thousand seven hundred dollars ($3,700.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from May 7, 1915.
Done at Washington January 7, 1925.
EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.
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[a] Dated December 17, 1924.
