Daughtry v. The Knights of Pythias

• Decision Date: 15 June 1896
• Docket Number: 12,174
• Citation: 48 La.Ann. 1203,20 So. 712
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: CATHERINE M. DAUGHTRY v. THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS

20 So. 712

48 La.Ann. 1203

CATHERINE M. DAUGHTRY v. THE KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS

No. 12,174

Supreme Court of Louisiana

June 15, 1896

Argued June 4, 1896

Rehearing Refused June 30, 1896.

APPEAL from the First Judicial District Court for the Parish of Caddo. Land, J.

Leonard & Randolph, for Plaintiff, Appellee.

Wise &amp Herndon and J. Zach. Spearing, for Defendants, Appellants.

OPINION

MCENERY J.

F. A Daughtry, the husband of plaintiff, was a member of the order of the Knights of Pythias, and belonged to the endowment rank.

He was found dead in a cell of the jail at Shreveport, La. The widow instituted this suit for the amount of the insurance on the life of her deceased husband.

The defence is that the deceased took his own life, and that the policy was forfeited by the laws of the order.

The facts recited in the record show that the deceased took his own life. There is no theory that can be advanced under the facts that could lead to a doubt of death by suicide. There is no basis for a theory that the death of the deceased was caused by accident, or that he met his death at the hands of others.

In Leman vs. Life Insurance Company, 46 An. 1186, we held that "when circumstantial evidence alone is relied on to establish suicide, it is at least within bounds to say the evidence must exclude with reasonable certainty any other cause of death." The evidence is such that no other conclusion can be arrived at than that the deceased voluntarily took his own life.

The plaintiff contends that if it be found that the husband committed suicide the policy is nevertheless due and payable, because when the certificate of membership of the endowment rank was issued to him it contained no provision against death by suicide nor did the laws of the order exclude self-destruction from the risks under the policy of insurance stipulated in the certificate; that the legislation thereafter forfeiting the policy on account of suicide could not affect a policy or certificate of membership issued prior thereto; that such legislation was ex post facto, and finally that the legislation did not bear on the contract, but only as to the fitness and qualification of membership, and related exclusively to the discipline of the order.

Orders like the defendant association have multiplied in recent years. Tney are organized for the mutual benefit of the members, taking care of the sick and afflicted in life and providing for the family of the deceased member after death. Rules and regulations, a constitution and by-laws are enacted for their government. Every member who joins one of these orders does so with a full knowledge of its laws and usages. He is bound by the constitution and by-laws, and subjects himself to their discipline in order to receive the benefits conferred by the order. There can be no law or regulation enacted after his membership that would destroy the benefit agreed to be conferred upon him by the laws and regulations in force at the time he joined the order. His contract of insurance could not be abridged or violated without his consent. But provision is made in the constitution for its amendment, and we see no reason why the members of an association of this kind can not, like the body politic, change its laws,...