Docket No. 7
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
on behalf of
Arthur Courtlandt Luck and Frances Lapham Field,
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[c] certifying their disagreement. A brief statement of the facts as disclosed by the record follows:
The United State on behalf of Arthur Courtlandt Luck and Frances Lapham Field asserts this claim for losses suffered by them resulting from the death on the Lusitania of Charlotte F. Luck, the wife, and Elbridge C. Luck and Kenneth F. Luck, the sons and only children, of the claimant Arthur Courtlandt Luck, and daughter and grandsons respectively of the claimant Frances Lapham Field.
At the time of the sinking of the Lusitania the claimants were and ever since have been American nationals. At the time of their deaths, Mrs. Luck was 34, her son Elbridge 12, and her son Kenneth 8 years of age; Luck was then 40 and Mrs. Field was then past 70 years of age. Luck was a prosperous mining engineer, domiciled in Massachusetts, whose business took him to England. During his absence abroad his wife and children temporarily resided with Mrs. Field in San Francisco. During her life Mrs. Luck made small contributions to the support of her mother, who is now a widow wholly dependent for support upon an unmarried daughter with small earning capacity. The claimant Luck was the source of the contributions made by his wife to her mother. During her life Mrs. Luck’s activities were confined to making a home for her husband and rearing and educating their children.
There was lost on the Lusitania personal property belonging to Mrs. Luck and her children of the value of $3,900.
The losses sustained by claimants are in part only susceptible of measurement by pecuniary standards. In so far as they may be so measured, the principles and rules announced by this Commission in its “Opinion in the Lusitania Cases” control. Applying those rules and the other decisions of this Commission to the facts in this case, the Commission decrees that under the Treaty of Berlin of August 25, 1921, and in accordance with its terms the Government of Germany is obliged to pay to the Government of the United States on behalf of (1) Arthur Courtlandt Luck the sum of twenty thousand dollars ($20,000.00), with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from November 1, 1923, and the further sum of three thousand nine hundred dollars ($3,900.00) with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent per annum from May 7, 1915, and (2) Frances Lapham Field 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.
Done at Washington February 21, 1924.
EDWIN B. PARKER
Umpire.
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[c] Dated February 14, 1924.
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