Docket No. 290
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Ogden Haggerty Hammond,
Claimant,
v.
Docket No. 292
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Ogden Haggerty Hammond and John Henry Hammond, Executors of the Estate of Mary Picton Stevens Hammond, Deceased, Ogden Haggerty Hammond individually, Mary Stevens Hammond, Millicent V. Hammond, an Ogden Haggerty Hammond, Jr.,
Claimant,
v.
GERMANY.
PARKER, Umpire, rendered the decision of the Commission.
The two cases numbered and styled as above are before the Umpire for decision on a certificate of the American Commissioner and the German Commissioner[a] certifying their disagreement. The cases have been considered and will be disposed of together. A brief statement of the facts as disclosed by the records follows:
Ogden Haggerty Hammond, an American national, one of the claimants herein, then 46 years of age, with his wife, Mary Picton Stevens Hammond, 29 years of age, took passage at New York May 1, 1915, on the Lusitania. When that ship was destroyed Mrs. Hammond was lost and Mr. Hammond sustained personal injuries. Besides her husband, Mrs. Hammond left surviving her two daughters, Mary Stevens Hammond and Millicent V. Hammond, aged 7 and 5 years respectively, and a son, Ogden Haggerty Hammond, Jr., then 3 years of age. When the ship went down Mr. Hammond was precipitated a distance of some 60 feet into the water, where he remained some two and one-half hours before being rescued. He sustained a broken rib, injury to a hand which became infected, a wrenched neck and back, and suffered generally from shock. He was confined to the hospital for three weeks, and suffered from his injuries to a greater or less extent for several years. The physician who examined him on his return to New York in June, 1915, testified in September, 1922, that so far as could be determined from a physicial examination Mr. Hammond had recovered from the nervous shock, though according to his statements he tired much more easily than formerly. Since this experience he has been unable to engage in athletics as was his wont. He was formerly engaged in and has continued in the real estate and insurance business.
Ogden Haggerty Hammond and John Henry Hammond as executors received net assets of Mrs. Hammond’s estate exceeding $1,700,000, which they hold as trustees under the terms of Mrs. Hammond’s will, the surviving husband — a claimant herein — receiving one-half of the net income and profits during his life, the remaining one-half being paid to the three children in equal parts, and the entire income and profits going to them on Mr. Hammond’s death. The principal of the entire estate will ultimately be paid in equal parts to the three children or to their issue.
Mr. Hammond has paid physician and hospital bills, incurred because of his personal injuries complained of, aggregating approximately $1,300. The personal property which he had with him on the Lusitania and which was lost was of the value of $2,970. The effects which Mrs. Hammond had with her and which were lost were of the value of $31,143, including a pearl necklace, an heirloom, which she had inherited from her mother, conservatively valued at $25,000. The young children of Mrs. Hammond have been deprived of her supervision of their care, training, and education.
Bearing in mind that the measure of the awards which this Commission is empowered to make in death cases is not the value of a life, but the losses to claimants resulting from a death, so far only as such losses are susceptible of being measured by pecuniary standards, and applying the rules announced in the Lusitania Opinion and in other decisions of this Commission to the facts in these cases, 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) Ogden Haggerty Hammond individually 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 also the sum of two thousand nine hundred seventy dollars ($2,970.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from May 7, 1915; (2) Mary Stevens Hammond the sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from November 1, 1923; (3) Millicent V. Hammond the sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from November 1, 1923; (4) Ogden Haggery Hammond, Jr., the sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from November 1, 1923; and (5) Ogden Haggerty Hammond and John Henry Hammond, Executors of the Estate of Mary Picton Stevens Hammond, Deceased, the sum of thirty-one thousand one hundred forty-three dollars ($31,143.00) 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.
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[a] Dated February 14, 1924.
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