Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen v. Hand

• Decision Date: 17 June 1907
• Docket Number: 12,699
• Citation: 44 So. 161,90 Miss. 893
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: BROTHERHOOD LOCOMOTIVE FIREMEN v. SARAH C. HAND ET AL

44 So. 161

90 Miss. 893

BROTHERHOOD LOCOMOTIVE FIREMEN v. SARAH C. HAND ET AL

No. 12,699

Supreme Court of Mississippi

June 17, 1907

FROM the chancery court of Lauderdale county, HON. JAMES L MCCASKILL, Chancellor.

Mrs Hand and another, the appellees, were complainants in the court below; the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and certain officers of a subordinate lodge, appellants, were defendants there. From a decree in favor of the complainants the defendants appealed to the supreme court.

The appellees, the mother and father of Vinton M. Hand, deceased brought this suit to recover $ 1,500 life insurance on the life of their deceased son, which they claimed to be due them from the defendants. The said Vinton M. Hand, some few months before his death, made application to the local lodge of the Brotherhood for membership therein and for a certificate of insurance in the beneficiary fund of the order on his life which was referred to a committee of investigation appointed by the local lodge to examine into his qualifications, which committee passed favorably upon it. Subsequently Hand made application for a beneficiary certificate of insurance, using a form called in the pleadings and evidence, a white form which the lodge claimed was obsolete, but which was received by the grand lodge, and the application referred to the grand medical examiner whose approval, according to the rules and regulations of the order, is a condition precedent to any right to participate in the beneficiary fund of the order. While the application was still in the hands of the grand lodge, and before the grand medical examiner had acted upon the application, Hand died. Subsequently this suit was begun and the bill of complaint charged "that the said Vinton M. Hand, possessing all the qualifications for membership in said association, and having made out his application in accordance with the constitution of said association, and the same having been forwarded to the grand medical examiner, it thereupon became the duty of the said grand medical examiner to pass upon the said application and approve the same; but the said grand medical examiner in violation of his said duty, as fixed by sec. 35 of the constitution of the order, failed and neglected to discharge said duty, and failed and neglected to pass upon said application for a certificate in said beneficiary department. . . . that the application of the said Vinton M. Hand was not passed upon or disapproved until after the death of the said Vinton M. Hand, and that the excuse on which said grand medical examiner pretended to disapprove was that said application was made out on a white form, instead of on a blue form; but the application was made out in compliance with the requirements of said constitution, and it was immaterial what color of paper the application was written upon, and other members of said association who joined the same at the same time, and before and after the said Vinton M. Hand, made out their applications upon the same forms as did the said Vinton M. Hand, and received their beneficiary certificates, and the said Vinton M. Hand made out said application upon the forms furnished to him by the defendant; and the action of the said medical examiner in disapproving said application after the death of the said Vinton M. Hand, was arbitrary, illegal, and contrary to the constitution and laws of said association, and said association is indebted to the complainant in the sum of $ 1,500 and interest thereon."

The evidence further showed that the local lodge took charge of the funeral of the deceased, burying him according to the rites of the order.

Decree appealed reversed and bill dismissed.

G. Q. Hall, Hall & Jacobson, for appellant.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen is a labor organization operating under clearly defined rules and regulations; and the mode of attaining to membership in the order, and of securing a beneficiary certificate of life insurance therein, is solely through the method prescribed by the rules of the order. An applicant for beneficiary certificate of life insurance is obligated, in writing, "to comply with all the laws, usages and regulations of the order as the condition upon which he shall be entitled to participate in the beneficiary department." Each applicant for such certificate is furnished with a copy of the constitution and by-laws of the order, in order that he may be informed as to its laws and regulations. A local medical examiner is provided for each subordinate lodge of the order, his duties being "to make personal examination of all applicants for membership, on forms prescribed by the grand lodge, and to perform such other duties as the laws, rules and regulations of the order require." In addition to the examination of the applicant for life insurance by such local medical examiner, there must subsequently be an approval of the application by an officer of the grand lodge, to-wit, the grand medical examiner, whose duty is "to examine all applications for beneficiary certificates, and to pass promptly upon the same." And it is expressly provided by the rules and regulations of the order that "neither the applicant nor any beneficiary whom he may designate, shall be entitled to participate in the beneficiary department, nor in any other fund of the Brotherhood, until the grand medical examiner shall have examined and approved the medical certificate of the local medical examiner; and in the event that the grand medical examiner, who shall be the sole judge thereof, does not approve, but on the contrary, disapproves a medical certificate, then such member shall be classed as a nonbeneficiary member, and entitled to the rights,...