Davidson v. Lodge

• Decision Date: 11 May 1886
• Citation: 22 Mo.App. 263
• Parties: ETHIE DAVIDSON ET UX., Appellants, v. SUPREME LODGE, KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS, Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

22 Mo.App. 263

ETHIE DAVIDSON ET UX., Appellants,

v.SUPREME LODGE, KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS, Respondent.

St. Louis Court of Appeals, Missouri.

May 11, 1886.

APPEAL from the St. Louis Circuit Court, GEORGE W. LUBKE, Judge.

Affirmed.

F. H. BACON, UPTON M. YOUNG, and ALEX. YOUNG, for the appellants: The laws of the endowment rank (Sec. 2, Art. 9), pointing out but the one way in which the beneficiaries could be changed, that way is the only way, and necessarily excludes all others. Coleman v. Supreme Lodge Knights of Honor, 18 Mo. App. 181.

HOUGH, OVERALL & JUDSON, for the respondent.

THOMPSON, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

This action was brought to recover the sum of two thousand dollars, claimed to be due the female plaintiff by the terms of a beneficiary certificate issued by the defendant to her father, Frank K. Kirkpatrick, and payable to her. Since the issue of the certificate she intermarried with her co-plaintiff. The case was tried before the circuit court, sitting as a jury, upon the pleadings, an agreed statement of facts, and certain exhibits thereto, together with a deposition of Halyor Nelson, the “Supreme Master of Exchequer” of the defendant. Declarations of law were given and refused; but, as there is no controversy whatever as to the facts, these declarations of law become unimportant, the real question being whether the judgment of the court is the proper conclusion of law upon the conceded facts. There is, also, a preliminary question as to whether the court was right in excluding a portion of the deposition of Mr. Nelson on the ground that it was a mere expression of opinion upon the construction of a written instrument, and, as such, incompetent. This will be noticed in the proper place.

Stated briefly, the conceded facts were, that on the sixteenth of October 1879, Frank K. Kirkpatrick, being a member in good standing of the order known as Knights of Pythias, made an application for membership in the first and second classes of the department of that order in which the lives of members of the order are insured, known as the “Endowment Rank”; that, in this application he named the female plaintiff, his daughter, then Ethie Kirkpatrick, as the beneficiary in the certificate of membership in the second class, calling, under certain conditions, for the sum of two thousand dollars; that his application was accepted; and that he thereupon became a member in good standing of what was known as section 346 of Knights of Pythias, which section was located at Holden, Mo. It appears that the supreme lodge in collecting the dues necessary to keep up this scheme of mutual life insurance, does not deal with the individual members of the endowment rank, but deals with the different “Sections,” treating each as a unit; and that, when a section, becomes to a certain extent, in arrears in respect of its dues to the endowment fund, it is suspended as a section. It, also, appears that it is a part of this scheme that when a section is thus suspended, all the members of it become, ipso facto, suspended, and that their beneficiary certificates, by their own terms, become null and void. It appears, moreover, that provision is made in this scheme by which individual members of the suspended section may become reinstated and may receive what is known as a “clearance card,” which entitles them to become members of other sections, which are not in a state of suspension, within a period of six months, upon proof that they are in good standing in the order of Knights of Pythias and not in arrears in respect of dues. The manner in which a member thus suspended may be reinstated is prescribed at length and with careful detail by one of the statutes of the order, called “Constitution for Sections of Endowment Rank.” The provisions of this statute, so far as they appear to be material to the present controversy, are as follows:

“Art. IV, Sect. 6. In addition to the preceding penalties, a member may be suspended from this rank (without its necessarily affecting his standing in the lodge to which he belongs) for a violation of any part of the obligation assumed in becoming a member of this rank; and in case of suspension for such cause shall forfeit all interest in the endowment fund; and, if reinstated, he must pay the admission fee and all assessments that have accrued during the period of his suspension.”

“Art. V, Sect. 3. Applications for membership, reinstatements, or additional class or classes, must clearly designate the class or classes applied for; which, having passed the favorable action of the committee on character, and ball ballot, must be sent with the requisite fee, including twenty-five cents for the medical examiner-in-chief, to the supreme master of exchequer, who shall immediately submit said application to the medical examiner-in-chief, for his approval or disapproval, which shall be endorsed upon the application. If favorable, the supreme master of exchequer--unless, in his opinion, the said application require reference to the board of control--shall immediately issue a regular certificate of membership in the endowment rank, for each class desired, signed by the supreme chancellor and supreme keeper of records and seal, and countersigned and registered by the supreme master of exchequer, specifying the class or classes to which he belongs, and certifying that at his death the benefits specified in the preceding section shall be paid. Secretaries and treasurers are strictly prohibited from delivering any certificate of endowment to a member who has not taken O. B. N., and no one shall have any interest in the endowment fund until he shall have taken the said O. B. N., and the date of taking the same shall be stated on the certificate, Should a member, after being notified to take the O. B. N., neglect or refuse to do so for thirty days, he shall forfeit all his title and interest in the endowment rank, and its funds, and the secretary and treasurer of the section shall return the certificate or certificates to the supreme master of exchequer for cancellation. Should the medical examiner-in-chief disapprove the application, the fee received for it by the supreme master of exchequer shall be placed to the credit of the section, except the twenty-five cents for the medical examiner-in-chief, and the section shall refund the fee to the applicant.”

“Art. VI, Sect. 5. A section of the endowment rank shall be responsible and liable to the supreme lodge for all moneys collected on assessments by its secretaries and treasurer, which he has neglected to pay over to the supreme master of exchequer in the manner and in the time prescribed by law; and in case of a section neglecting to pay the supreme master of exchequer the same, on demand, it may be suspended, provided, that a section suspended for non-payment of assessments shall be restored by the supreme chancellor to good standing, without its members being subject to a new medical examination; if within thirty days from date of suspension such section shall pay all arrearages of assessments.”

“Art. VI, Sect. 7. Less than seven members of a suspended section can only again become members of the endowment rank by making application to the supreme lodge, or the supreme chancellor for a clearance card, paying all assessments for ninety days after suspension, and passing a medical examination, and then only after the surrender of all properties of the section to the supreme lodge.”

“Art. VII, Sect. 1. Upon receiving notice of an assessment, each member shall at once pay the amount to the secretary and treasurer of the section to which he belongs. In case any member neglects for thirty days after date of notice to pay said assessment, he shall stand suspended from that class of the endowment rank for which said assessment was made, and shall forfeit all claims upon the endowment fund belonging to said class, and the fact of said suspension shall be reported to the supreme master of exchequer, upon the remittance blank, provided, that any member thus suspended for non-payment of assessments shall have the privilege of regaining all his rights as a member of the section, in said class, within three months, by passing a new medical examination and paying all the assessments that may have accrued up to that time. But when three months shall have elapsed from the date of suspension, he shall be required to pay, in addition to the assessments that have accrued during the first ninety days after such suspension, the sum of two dollars, pass a new medical examination, and then be re-admitted by a two-thirds vote of the members of the section present when the application is made. All reinstatements in accordance with this section shall be reported to the supreme master of exchequer by the secretary and treasurer, in his remittance blank. The provision of this section shall apply to all members now under suspension.”

“Art. IX, Sect. 1. Every applicant for membership in the endowment rank shall designate in his application some person or persons to whom the benefit shall be paid when due, and the name of the person or persons so designated shall be inserted in the benefit certificate.”

On June 30, 1882, Section No. 346, located at Holden, Mo., to which Frank K. Kirkpatrick belonged was duly and regularly suspended by the supreme chancellor of the order for non-payment of assessments in the endowment rank. On the twenty-second day of October, 1882, which, it will be perceived, was more than three months after this suspension, Mr. Kirkpatrick made an application for reinstatement as a member of the endowment rank. This application was made on the same printed form which is used in original applications for membership in the endowment rank. It was headed, “Application for membership in the endowment rank, K. of P.” It proceeded to state that, “the undersigned is desirous of becoming a member of section 346, endowment rank, of the order of Knights of Pythias. This...