Morrison v. Mutual Benev. Ass'n of Chesterfield County

• Decision Date: 23 October 1907
• Citation: 59 S.E. 27,78 S.C. 398
• Parties: MORRISON v. MUTUAL BENEV. ASS'N OF CHESTERFIELD COUNTY.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

59 S.E. 27

78 S.C. 398

MORRISON v. MUTUAL BENEV. ASS'N OF CHESTERFIELD COUNTY.

Supreme Court of South Carolina

October 23, 1907

Appeal from Common Pleas Circuit Court of Chesterfield County; J. C Klugh, Judge.

Action by C. F. Morrison against the Mutual Benevolent Association of Chesterfield County. From a judgment for defendant plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Stevenson & Matheson, for appellant.

W. P Pollock, for respondent.

JONES J.

Plaintiff brought this action to recover $1,000 on a policy of life insurance issued by defendant October 15, 1904, on the life of plaintiff's wife, Elizzie E. Morrison, who died July 22, 1905. The defense set up was that the policy was forfeited for failure on the part of plaintiff to pay a note for entrance fee for himself and wife, and because the annual dues for the period from October 15, 1904, to December 1, 1904, being one-eighth of $1.25, had not been paid on December 1, 1904, which defeated the policy. From judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals.

The first exception alleges error, in the charge to the jury that section 12 of by-laws of the association which formed a part of the policy entailed a forfeiture of membership, if the dues of about 15 cents were not paid by December 1, 1904. The section in question is as follows: "The annual dues of $1.25 shall be due and payable to the secretary and treasurer of the home office on or before the first day of December of each year. If a member has not belonged to the association for twelve months, he is only required to pay pro rata. Any member failing to pay the annual dues of $1.25 within the given time shall be dropped from the association." The court, in construing this section, instructed the jury: "Now, the question is: What is the proper construction of that section of the by-laws where a member has been in the association for less than a year from the time the annual dues fall due, and therefore is only chargeable for a pro rata of the $1.25 in proportion to the length of time he has been in the association? I charge you that by the terms of the contract it is as much the duty of the member to pay the pro rata which is due as it is the duty of another member to pay the full amount of $1.25; and the same consequences must fall upon the failure to pay one as upon the failure to pay the other. The mention of the annual dues of $1.25 is not intended, and cannot be construed, to mean that it must be a failure to pay $1.25 annual dues to work a forfeiture of the policy; but the failure to pay the annual dues, whatever it may be, is what works the forfeiture. I charge you if you find from the evidence that the assured failed to pay the annual dues, whatever she was due as annual dues on the 1st day of December, 1904, then this policy became forfeited, and was liable to be dropped, and, if the association did drop her from its membership, that that amounted to a cancellation of that policy and the plaintiff cannot recover. That is a question of fact for you to determine as to whether the annual dues were due or not at that time." It is contended by appellant that this charge added to and changed the forfeiture clause in section 12 of the written contract so as to read: "Any member failing to pay the annual dues of $1.25 or such pro rata as may be due under this by-law shall be dropped," etc., and that this construction was violative of the rule that forfeitures should be strictly construed. We think the charge of the Court was correct in so far as it construed article 12. It seems clear that this provision as to forfeiture was intended to apply as well to members joining the association any time during the year as to those joining or belonging at the beginning of the year, as the duty to pay annual dues is as important and imperative in the one case as in the other. The words "annual dues of $1.25" fairly include pro rata annual dues at that rate.

The...