CLAIM OF MARION KENYON (FREDERICK R. KENYON)
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK.
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In The Matter
Of
The Petition of the Oceanic Steam Navigation
Company, Limited, for Limitation
of its liability as owner of the Steamship
"TITANIC"
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The claim of MARION KENYON, as Administratrix of FREDERICK R. KENYON, alleges as follows:
1. That on or about the 22nd day of April, 1912, the claimant, the said Marion Kenyon, was duly appointed by the Probate Court of the District of Groton, County of New London, State of Connecticut, the Administratrix of the Estate of Frederick R. Kenyon, who was the husband of the claimant, and who died intestate on or about the 14th day of April, 1912. The claimant has duly qualified as such administratrix, and is now acting as such.
2. That the said Frederick R. Kenyon left him surviving the claimant, his wife, and his mother, Emma Kenyon, but left him surviving no father, children, step-children, grand-children, grand parents, step-father or step-mother.
Claimant further alleges upon information and belief as follows:
3. That the above named petitioner is and at all times herein mentioned was a corporation organized and existing under the Laws of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and an English registered company, and a common carrier, and the owner of the steamship, "TITANIC". At the times hereinafter mentioned, the said steamship "TITANIC" was a British sea-going ship, and upon information and belief, had been duly registered pursuant to the Laws of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and hailed from the port of Liverpool in said, Kingdom and was one of a line of cargo and passenger steamships operated by petitioner between Southampton and New York.
4. That on or about April 10th, 1912, the said Frederick B. Kenyon took passage at Southampton, England, on the said Steamship "TITANIC", under a contract previously made between the said Frederick R. Kenyon and the petitioner herein, for a valuable consideration paid to petitioner, by the terms of which contract petitioner agreed safely to transport the said Frederick B. Kenyon as a passenger, together with his luggage and personal effects from Southampton to New York.
5. That while on said voyage and on the high seas in or near Latitude 41 d. 46 m. N. Longitude 50 d. 14 m. W. and on or about April 14th, 1912, the said steamship "TITANIC" collided with a large iceberg and shortly afterward sank, causing the death of the said Frederick P. Kenyon, and a large number of other persons, and the loss of the cargo, baggage and personal property contained in said vessel. That such loss of the steamship "TITANIC" and the lives and property of persons on board thereof were caused by the wrongful, acts, neglect, fault and negligence of petitioner, Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited, and of petitioner's agents and servants in the navigation of said vessel and in failing to make the said vessel seaworthy and properly manned, equipped and supplied, and in failing to supply sufficient life boats, and in failing to Iran such life boats as were provided with sufficient and properly drilled crews, and in failing properly to utilize said life boats and in failing, after the said collision, to take proper measures for the rescue of the said Frederick R. Kenyon and other persons on board the "TITANIC" and otherwise, and such loss and destruction of lives and property was with the privity, fault and knowledge of the petitioner, and occurred without fault on the part of the said Frederick R. Kenyon. Upon information and belief that the life of Frederick R. Kenyon would have been saved but for the fact that claimant did not provide sufficient life boats to rescue all persons on board the "TITANIC" in the event of her sinking, and claimant alleges upon information and belief that the loss of the life of the said Frederick B. Kenyon was also contributed to by the fault of petitioners agents in forcibly preventing the said Frederick R. Kenyon and others from entering the life boats which were used to rescue some of the passengers on said Steamship, notwithstanding the fact that said life boats were incompletely filled, and could have contained many more passengers than were rescued therein. That the failure to provide sufficient life boats, as well as other negligence above set forth, was with the privity, knowledge and fault of the petitioner.
6. That the English Statute, known as Lord Campbell's Act, Vict. 9 and 10, Chapter 93, and amendments thereof, provide that when the death of a person is caused by wrongful act, neglect or default which, if death had not ensued, would entitle the party injured to maintain an action and recover damages in respect thereof, the person who would have been liable if death had not ensued shall be liable in an action by the executor or administrator of the deceased, for the benefit of the wife, husband, parent, and child, grand-parent, grandchild, step-father or step-mother, step-son and step-daughter, of the person whose death shall have been so caused. Such statute further provides that such action is to be commenced within twelve calendar months after the death of the deceased and shall be brought in the name of the executor or administrator of the deceased or, if none has been appointed, or if appointed, fails to act, then it may be brought by and in the name of any or all of the persons for whose benefit it would have been, if brought in the name of the executor or administrator, and such statute provides that in every such action the Jury may give such damages as they may think proportionate to the injury resulting from such death to the parties respectively for whom and for whose benefit such action shall be brought. That by reason of the facts set forth in the preceding paragraphs hereof, if death had not ensued from the aforesaid wrongful acts, neglect and default of the petitioner and its agents and servants, but if the said Frederick R. Kenyon had merely suffered personal injury therefrom, he would have been entitled under the laws of England as well as the State of New York to maintain an action and recover damages in respect to such injury.
For a second claim and cause of action herein, the above named claimant alleges as follows:
She repeats as if herein fully set forth, the allegations contained in paragraphs "1","2"', "3", "4" and "5", and alleges further, upon information and belief.
8. That included in the property on the "TITANIC" when lost and destroyed as aforesaid, were certain luggage and personal effects, the property of the said Frederick R. Kenyon, deceased, which petitioner had contracted safely to transport from Southampton to New York. The said property was never salved or recovered, and an itemized list thereof, with the market values of each item and the date of such loss, is annexed hereto and made a part hereof, marked Schedule "A". No credits have been given thereon and no payments have been made on account thereof.
9. That by reason of the premises, the aforesaid claimant, Marion Kenyon, has been damaged in the sum of $250,000.00, by reason of the loss of life of her said husband, Frederick R. Kenyon, and has a claim and cause of action against the petitioner in that amount, for the benefit of herself and for the benefit of Emma Kenyon, mother of the said Frederick R. Kenyon, and the claimant as Administratrix of the said Frederick R. Kenyon has been damaged and has a further claim against the petitioner in the sum of $1,137., by reason of the aforesaid loss of the personal luggage and effects of the said Frederick R. Kenyon.
WHEREFORE, claimant hereby makes and files her claim against the above named petitioner, Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, for the total sum of $251,137.00, with interest and costs, and prays that the Commissioner appointed to receive claims herein will report to the Court that the said sum is due to this claimant, and prays that she recover the same, and for such other and further relief herein as may be just.
Hunt, Hill & Betts (sig.)
Proctors for Claimant,
Office and Post Office Address,
165 Broadway,
Borough of Manhattan,
New York.
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| So. District of New York | } { ss: } |
| State of New York | |
| County of New York |
MARION KENYON, being duly sworn, deposes and says, I am the claimant in the above-entitled claim. The above claim is true to my own knowledge except as to the matters stated to be alleged upon information and belief, and as to those matters I believe it to be true.
Marion Kenyon (sig.)
Sworn to before me this
13th day of January, 1913.
Alexander Begg (sig.)
Notary Public, #44.
New York County.
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Southern District of New York, ss.:
being duly sworn, says that he is one of the proctors for the above-named claimant; that the said claimant is absent from this district and more than a hundred miles from the City of New York, and deponent is authorized to act for said claimant herein; that he has read the foregoing claim and knows the contents thereof, and the matters therein stated are true to the best of his knowledge, information and belief; that deponent's means of information are letters in his possession which he believes to be true.
Sworn to before me this
day of January 1913.