Gill v. Grand Lodge Broth. of Railroad Trainmen

• Decision Date: 25 February 1938
• Citation: 272 Ky. 328,114 S.W.2d 123
• Parties: GILL v. GRAND LODGE BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD TRAINMEN.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

114 S.W.2d 123

272 Ky. 328

GILL v. GRAND LODGE BROTHERHOOD OF RAILROAD TRAINMEN.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky

February 25, 1938

Appeal from Circuit Court, Webster County.

Action on a fraternal life certificate by Cammie Gill against Grand Lodge Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

W. Fred Hume, of Providence, for appellant.

Withers & Lisman, of Dixon, for appellee.

RATLIFF Justice.

In March, 1920, Henry M. Gill, now deceased, was a resident of Providence, Webster county, Ky. and an employee of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, and became a member of the Grand Lodge Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen hereinafter called the Brotherhood. At the time the deceased became affiliated with the Brotherhood, he joined Incline Lodge No. 242 at Evansville, Ind., hereinafter called the Evansville Lodge; that being the local lodge covering the Evansville district of Louisville & Nashville employees which included the town of Providence.

Upon petition and application therefor, the Brotherhood issued to Gill a beneficiary certificate in the sum of $1,600. He continued in the employ of the railroad company until about the year 1923, when he ceased to work for it and accepted employment with the Ruckman Coal Company in Providence Webster county, Ky. and continued to work for the coal company until the time of his death in 1935.

After he quit the employment of the railroad company, he continued his membership in the Brotherhood and paid his dues to the Evansville Lodge No. 242 until he was expelled from the Brotherhood by Fitzhugh Lee Lodge No. 536, Paducah, Ky hereinafter called the Paducah Lodge.

The town of Providence where decedent resided is also served by the Illinois Central Railroad Company, and the employees of the Paducah Lodge were served by the Illinois Central Railroad Company, thus bringing the employees of the respective railroad companies within the same territory.

In the year 1930 the United Mine Workers attempted to unionize the coal mines of Webster county, and a strike resulted. The decedent, Gill, continued to work in his employment with the coal company, notwithstanding the strike, and the employees of the railroad company, being sympathetic to the cause of the United Mine Workers, reported to the Paducah Lodge No. 536 that decedent was continuing to work for the coal company as a strike breaker, and charged him with "acceptance of employment during a legally authorized strike." The Grand President of the Brotherhood referred the charges to the Paducah Lodge No. 536, and that lodge notified decedent of the charge and that his trial was set for January 20, 1931, at 7:30 p. m. at the lodge hall in Paducah, Ky. Decedent acknowledged receipt of the charge and notice of hearing, but by letter advised the lodge that he could not be present. He was found guilty of the charge, and the committee hearing the case recommended that he be expelled, and its report was accepted and concurred in by the lodge, and he was thereupon expelled.

After the death of decedent, in 1935, four years after his expulsion, his widow, the appellant, brought this suit in the Webster circuit court seeking to collect the insurance represented by the certificate issued to her decedent. She bases her action solely upon the ground that her decedent was under the sole jurisdiction of the Evansville Lodge No. 242, and that the Paducah Lodge No. 536 had no authority to expel him, and his expulsion is void.

The petition briefly sets out that plaintiff's decedent was an employee of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad company, and that in March, 1920, appellee, the Brotherhood, issued the certificate of insurance in question and that decedent regularly paid his dues until the first day of February, 1931 (after his expulsion), at which time the Evansville Lodge refused to accept the dues tendered and offered by decedent; that decedent had complied with all the rules and regulations of the Brotherhood; and that his certificate of insurance was in force at the time of his death.

The Brotherhood filed its answer denying, among other things that the benefit certificate sued on was in force and effect at the time of the death of decedent and denied that he should recover thereon. It further pleaded affirmatively that decedent worked in the coal mines as a "strike breaker" and thereby violated the principles of the Brotherhood, and that the Paducah Lodge had jurisdiction over the territory embracing the town of Providence, Ky. where decedent resided, and had such jurisdiction at the time he was expelled. It filed, as an exhibit with its answer, the charges preferred against decedent, which it alleged was in accordance with the constitution of the Brotherhood, and also filed copies of notice to decedent of the charges, time and place of trial, and also his letter acknowledging receipt of the notice in which he stated that he was not guilty, and further stated that he could not be present at the trial. There is also filed with the pleadings copies of all...