Delaney v. Delaney

• Decision Date: 24 October 1898
• Parties: DELANEY v. DELANEY et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

175 Ill. 187

51 N.E. 961

DELANEY

v.DELANEY et al.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 24, 1898.

Appeal from appellate court, First district.

Bill of interpleader by the High Court of the Independent Order of Foresters against Mary Delaney and Daniel Delaney, to determine which of them is entitled to the amount due on an endowment certificate issued by complainant to Martin Delaney. From a judgment of the appellate court (70 Ill. App. 130) affirming a decree in favor of said Daniel Delaney, said Mary Delaney appeals. Affirmed.James E. White (Ward B. Sawyer, of counsel), for appellant.

Francis T. Colby, for appellees.

This is a bill of interpleader, brought by the High Court of the Independent Order of Foresters against Mary Delaney and Daniel Delaney. The bill was filed for the purpose of compelling the appellant, Mary Delaney, and the appellee Daniel Delaney, to interplead, and settle their respective claims to $1,000, admitted by the order to be due from it upon an endowment certificate payable upon the death of Martin Delaney, a member of the said order, who died October 25, 1893. The appellant was the wife of Martin Delaney, and the appellee was his second cousin. Answers were filed to the bill by Mary Delaney and Daniel Delaney, and replications were filed to the answers. The $1,000 was paid into court, and the High Court of the Independent Order of Foresters was dismissed, with its costs and attorney's fees, and the cause was retained for the purpose of deciding to whom the money should be paid. The circuit court entered a decree in favor of the appellee Daniel Delaney, from which decree the appellant, Mary Delaney, prosecuted her appeal to the appellate court, where the judgment of the circuit court was affirmed. The present appeal is prosecuted from such judgment of affirmance.

The facts, so far as it is necessary to state them in order to understand the questions involved, are as follows:

The complainant below, the High Court of the Independent Order of Foresters, is a fraternal and benevolent organization, organized under the laws of Illinois, for the purpose of ‘giving to its members, or the members of such subordinate courts as it may institute, life insurance, to be paid upon the death of the member obtaining the same to such person or persons as may be designated by the endowment certificate issued by’ it. The complainant corporation was organized under the act concerning corporationsof April 18, 1872, as amended by the act of March 28, 1874, concerning ‘corporations not for pecuniary profit.’ 1 Starr & C. Ann. St. (2d Ed.) pp. 988, 1020, 1021; Pub. Laws Ill. 1871-72, p. 296; Pub. Laws Ill. 1873-74, p. 74.

In April, 1881, Martin Delaney made application for membership in said order, which application contained the following words: ‘I direct that, in case of my decease, all benefit to which I may be entitled from the Independent Order of Foresters of the state of Illinois be paid to Mary Delaney, related to me as my wife, subject to such future disposal of the benefit to my widow, orphans, heirs, or devisees as I may hereafter direct, in compliance with the laws of the order.’

The charter contains the following provision, to wit: ‘Second. That the object for which it is formed is to give charitable and moral aid to its members, and to the widows, orphans, and devisees of deceased members, of said order, and to establish and charter subordinate courts.’ The by-laws contain similar provisions to that contained in the charter above quoted.

On November 14, 1882, the order issued to Martin Delaney, as a member of Court Fidelity No. 37, Independent Order of Foresters of Illinois, a certificate, duly signed, attested, sealed, and recorded, and accepted in writing by said member, wherein, after reciting that it is to be issued upon condition that the statements made in the application for membership and the statements certified to the medical examiner are made a part of the contract, and upon condition that the said member complies with the laws, rules, and regulations governing the said order, or that may thereafter be enacted by the high court, the following words are used: ‘These conditions being complied with, the said High Court of the Independent Order of Foresters of Illinois hereby promises and binds itself to pay to Mrs. Mary Delaney, his wife, $1,000, upon satisfactory evidence of the death of said member, and upon the surrender of this certificate, provided that said member is in good standing in this order at the time of his death, and provided, also, that this certificate shall not have been surrendered by said member, and another certificate issued at his request, in accordance with the laws of this order.’

On June 6, 1887, Martin Delaney made and presented to the order an affidavit, in which he swore that said benefit certificate No. 1,087, above set forth, had been either ‘lost, destroyed, or stolen,’ and requested a new certificate in place thereof to be issued to the Mercy Hospital of Chicago. Thereupon an endowment certificate, No. 12,725, was issued in accordance with said request. On July 24, 1888, Martin Delaney surrendered and delivered said certificate No. 12,725 to the said order, with the following indorsement on the back thereof: ‘I herewith surrender and return to the High Court of the Independent Order of Foresters of Illinois the within benefit certificate No. 12,725, and direct that a new one be issued, to be payable to Daniel Delaney, my cousin;’ which indorsement was signed by Martin Delaney. Accordingly, a new certificate, No. 18,770, was issued to Martin Delaney, as such member, wherein, after reciting the same conditions as were recited in No. 1,087, the high court of the order promises and binds itself to pay to Daniel Delaney, cousin of said member, $1,000, upon satisfactory evidence of the death of said member, and upon surrender of the certificate, provided said member is in good standing at the time of his death, and provided, also, that ‘this certificate shall not have been surrendered by said member, and a new certificate issued at his request, in accordance with the laws of this order.’

Martin Delaney was at the time of his death, on October 23, 1893, a member in good standing of said order, and proofs and notification of his death were presented, as required by the constitution and by-laws then in force. He left surviving him his widow, Mary Delaney, who had a daughter and three granddaughters. After a hearing had upon the pleadings and testimony, the circuit court entered a decree, in which it found, among other things, that Martin Delaney did not give said certificate to appellant, or make any contract with her that she should receive the insurance money mentioned therein, or that he would not change the beneficiary mentioned therein; that said Martin, in 1886, became an object of charity, dependent for his support upon his friends and relatives; that Daniel Delaney was a cousin of said Martin, and at his request, on January 6, 1887, made an agreement for him with the Mercy Hospital of Chicago, by which said hospital agreed to board and clothe said Martin during the balance of his life, and said Martin agreed to surrender said endowment certificate No. 1,087, and have a new one issued; that said Daniel agreed to pay the dues and assessments that might thereafter be payable by reason of the membership of said Martin in said order so long as said Martin lived; that said Martin delivered endowmentcertificate No. 12,725 to said hospital, which thereupon commenced to board, lodge, and clothe him, and continued to do so until about May 1, 1887; that said Daniel paid all dues and assessments for said Martin in said order from January 6, 1887, until said Martin's death; that on or about May 1, 1887, said hospital ceased to take care of said Martin, and surrendered said certificate upon the payment by said Daniel of what was then due to it for board and lodging; that said Daniel, at the request of Martin, made an agreement, on the latter's behalf, with the Little Sisters of the Poor, who conducted a home for the agen in the city of Chicago, by which said Sisters agreed to board, lodge, and clothe said Martin during the balance of his life, and he agreed to surrender said certificate No. 12,725, and have a new one issued, payable to said Daniel Delaney; that said Daniel Delaney agreed to pay said Little Sisters, upon the death of said Martin, out of the insurance to be collected, for the board, etc., furnished by them to said Martin; that the said certificate No. 18,770 was thereupon issued, payable to said Daniel, and delivered to him, and he paid $60 due to said Mercy Hospital, and has paid all dues thereafter to the said order; that said Sisters took care of said Martin until his death, and that said Daniel paid his funeral expenses; that said Mary Delaney knew of the issuance of certificate No. 12,725, and of the surrender of the latter certificate in July, 1888, and of the issuance of said certificate No. 18,770, and knew of the payments by Daniel Delaney of the dues and assessments to the order, and also knew of the furnishing by the said hospital and said Sisters of support to said Martin; that appellant never made known to said Daniel, or to said hospital, or to said Sisters, or to said high court, the fact that she had possession of said endowment certificate No. 1,087, nor did she claim the same to be in full force; that said Mary has been guilty of laches in the assertion of any right she may have had under certificate No. 1,087; that the issue of said certificate No. 12,725, and the issue of said certificate No. 18,770, were the free and voluntary acts of said Martin Delaney, and not done at the request of Daniel Delaney.

MAGRUDER, J. (after stating the facts).

The first endowment certificate, No. 1,087, which was issued to the deceased, Martin Delaney, by the High Court of the Independent Order of Foresters, was made payable to the...