White House Press Release

379 #819 IMMEDIATE RELUASE AUGUST 9, 1946 MEMORANDUM OF DISAPPROVAL I have today withheld my approval of the bill H.R. 2736, "For the relief of Norman Abbott. It is the purpose of the bill to pay the sum of $10,000 to Norman Abbott, of Baltimore, Maryland, in settlement of his claims against the United States by reason of personal injuries, and medical and hospital expenses incurred, and loss of earnings sustained as a result of having been struck by a Coast Guard vehicle on March 26, 1944, while standing at a street intersection in Baltimore, Maryland. It appears that on the date in question a Coast Guard vehicle, operated by an enlisted man on official business, was proceeding in a westerly direction on one of the streets in Baltimore, Maryland, and was approaching a street intersection; that at a distance of approxi- mately 80 feet before reaching the intersection the Coast Guard vehicle passed on the right side of a street car on the same street and moving in the same direction as the Coast Guard vehicle; that as the Coast Guard vehicle reached a point approximately 5 or 10 feet from the inter- section, the driver suddenly noticed a group of three pedestrians stand- ing alongside the street car tracks, waiting for the street car; and that although the driver of the vehicle applied his brakes and turned sharply to his right, the left front fender and headlight of the vehicle struck one of the pedestrians, the claimant. NARA As a result of the accident, the claimant, who was 31 years of age at the time, sustained a laceration about 11/2 inches in length on the left of his forehead and a laceration about 3 inches in length in the left middle third of the thigh, with a third laceration about 11/20 inches in diameter on his thigh, which was classified by the examining physician as an abrasion. For the period November 30, 1938, to January 9, 1942, Mr. Abbott was employed as a grocer order filler at $21 a week. From the date of the accident until May 1945 he apparently was unem- ployed. Since May 1945 he has been working for his board and room at a dog farm. He was employed at a substantial wage in war work just prior to the accident. While he is married and has a 7-year-old child, apparently he and his wife are separated, his wife having returned to her mother's home to live. Since the accident the claimant has been examined by a number of doctors, some of whom were attached to the Public Health Service, and finally by a doctor of Johns Hopkins Hospital. The earlier examina- tions following the accident indicated that the injuries were super- ficial and that within a short time he had fully recovered from the physical injuries sustained. There was an indication that he had disability of his right ankle which medical evidence attributed to an attack of infantile paralysis when the claimant was 12 years of age. It was concluded therefore that he was suffering more from a mental than from a physical disability. The final examination of the claimant at the Johns Hopkins Hospital resulted in the conclusion that the patient's condition was the result of several factors, namely (1) the patient's own personality as reflected in his previous difficulty in adjustment; (2) trauma incident to the accident; and (3) marital dif- ficulties, which had been in operation before the accident, but which came to a decisive head several months later; and that it was not pos- sible to evaluate the relative significance of these factors insofar as his present incapacity is concerned. The claimant has incurred medical and hospital, expenses in the amount of $253.90. On the basis of his earnings of $4,607.42 for the year 1943 when he was engaged in war industries, he sustained a loss of earnings from the date of the accident through May 1945 of approximately $5,493.42, but there is considerable question as to whether the physical disabilities sus- tained by the claimant were responsible for this wage loss. (OVER)