Docket No. 267.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Hannah J. Seccombe,
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.
Percy Seccombe, 20 years of age, and Elizabeth A. Seccombe, 38 years of age, son and daughter respectively of Hannah J. Seccombe, claimant herein, were salon [sic, saloon] passengers on and were lost with the Lusitania. Neither of the decedents had ever married. Their father, William S. Seccombe, was born in England in 1847, where he married claimant in 1874. He left England in 1895 and settled in Peterborough, New Hampshire, where he was joined by family in 1897. On May 18, 1898, he became, through naturalization, a citizen of the United States. He served as Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy during the Spanish-American War, 1898 – 1899, at the close of which he was honorably discharge. He was by profession a master mariner. He died in 1910, leaving a small estate and a large family. Elizabeth was the second child and Percy the youngest. Through great industry and strict economy the claimant herein was able to rear her family and bring them up to be self-supporting.
It is clear from the record that the daughter Elizabeth was the mainstay of the family. She was trained as a nurse and also as housekeeper, companion, and secretary, and for a number of years prior to her death was employed in positions yielding substantial pecuniary returns. The contributions which she made to her mother were a principal source of the latter’s support. She helped educate several of the younger children, and her accumulated saving in stocks and cash inventoried slightly in excess of $7,000. It affirmatively appears from the record that the claimant’s other children have never contributed and are not able to contribute to the claimant’s support. Her son Percy had been attending a school through the assistance of his sister Elizabeth. He and Elizabeth were en route to England to enlist in Red Cross work. Their personal effects which they had with them on the Lusitania were lost.
The decedents were both born in England, Elizabeth on January 8, 1877, and Percy on March 4, 1895. Their father became a naturalized citizen of the United States on May 18, 1898. At that time Elizabeth was four months and ten days past 21 years of age, while Percy was only slightly past 3 years of age. The claimant and Percy as the wife of the minor son of William S. Seccombe became citizens of the United States through his naturalization. No so as to Elizabeth, who had then attained her majority and who remained a subject of Great Britain to the time of her death, although she had continuously resided in the United States for some 18 years.
The German Agent challenges the right of the United States to put forward this claim on behalf of Mrs. Seccombe, an American national, for damages which she sustained through the death of her daughter, because the latter was a British subject. This contention has been rejected by the decision of the Umpire rendered on January 30, 1925, in Administrative Decision No. VI. The case presented by this record aptly illustrates the soundness of the rule there announced.
Applying the rules announced in the Lusitania Opinion, in Administrative Decision No. VI, and in the other decisions of this Commission to the facts 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 Hannah J. Seccombe the sum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from November 1, 1923.
Done at Washington February 11, 1925.
EDWIN B. PARKER,
Umpire.
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[a] Dated September 23, 1924.
