Gellatly v. Minnesota Odd Fellows' Mutual Benefit Society

• Decision Date: 30 September 1880
• Citation: 6 N.W. 627,27 Minn. 215
• Parties: Ann Gellatly v. Minnesota Odd Fellows' Mutual Benefit Society
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

6 N.W. 627

27 Minn. 215

Ann Gellatly v. Minnesota Odd Fellows' Mutual Benefit Society

Supreme Court of Minnesota

September 30, 1880

Appeal by defendant from an order of the district court for Ramsey county, Wilkin, J., presiding, refusing a new trial.

Order affirmed.

E. C Palmer and Chas. N. Bell, for appellant.

James Smith, Jr., and W. T. Burr, for respondent.

OPINION

Berry J.

The defendant is a mutual life-insurance society. This is an action upon a certificate of membership in such association, issued to John T. Gellatly, by the terms of which the defendant agrees to pay to the plaintiff, if living, within 60 days after due notice and satisfactory evidence of the death of her husband, the said John, a sum equal to the amount sued for in this action. The certificate also contains a condition that if the said John shall fail to comply in all respects with the by-laws and regulations of the society, the certificate shall be void. John T. Gellatly died September 17, 1877.

1. It was objected upon the trial (which was by jury) that the plaintiff could not recover, because her husband had failed to comply with one of the defendant's by-laws with reference to the payment of an assessment. Whether he had so failed depended upon whether the defendant's secretary had notified him of the death claim which rendered such assessment necessary. For the defendant it was claimed that notice was given (as it properly might be under a by-law) by mail, and the defendant introduced evidence tending to sustain this claim. On the other hand, the plaintiff introduced evidence which, as it seems to us, tended legitimately to show that no such notice was ever mailed or received. Upon this point in the case we are of opinion that the testimony, though conflicting in its effect, was sufficient to support the finding of the jury that no notice was sent.

2. One of the defendant's by-laws provided that "proof of death shall be made on blanks furnished by the society, with the seal of the lodge to which the member belongs, or of the nearest lodge to the deceased." It appears that a person acting for Mrs. Gellatly applied to the defendant's secretary for blanks of the kind mentioned in the by-law, and that the secretary refused to let him have them. Presumably and in the absence of some positive regulation to the contrary -- of which we discover no evidence -- the secretary would appear to be a proper person to...