Grayson v. Grand Temple, Etc.

• Decision Date: 05 December 1914
• Docket Number: (No. 5359.)
• Citation: 171 S.W. 489
• Parties: GRAYSON v. GRAND TEMPLE AND TABERNACLE IN STATE OF TEXAS OF KNIGHTS AND DAUGHTERS OF TABOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL ORDER OF TWELVE.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 489

171 S.W. 489

GRAYSON v. GRAND TEMPLE AND TABERNACLE IN STATE OF TEXAS OF KNIGHTS AND DAUGHTERS OF TABOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL ORDER OF TWELVE.

(No. 5359.)

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. San Antonio.

December 5, 1914.

Appeal from Bexar County Court for Civil Cases; John H. Clark, Judge.

Action by L. E. Grayson against the Grand Temple and Tabernacle in the State of Texas of the Knights and Daughters of Tabor of the International Order of Twelve. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals. Reversed and rendered.

T. H. Ridgeway, of San Antonio, for appellant. Carlos Bee and C. C. Todd, both of San Antonio, for appellee.

FLY, C. J.

This suit was instituted by appellant for $300, insurance on the life of her husband, William Grayson, deceased, and $75, a funeral benefit. The cause was submitted to a jury on special issues, and upon their answers judgment was rendered for appellee.

Appellee is a fraternal benefit society, and William Grayson was a member thereof when he was killed in the boiler explosion in the roundhouse of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway Company at San Antonio on March 18, 1912. He had a life certificate in said society for $300, but, by reason of a failure to pay certain sums required by the constitution and by-laws, he was not in good standing or, as the members put the matter, he was "unfinancial," and his surviving wife was not entitled to receive the $300 benefit. The endowment tax had not been paid by Grayson for January, February, and March, 1912. By the terms of the benefit certificate, the beneficiary was not entitled to the $300 at his death, unless he was "in good standing in his * * * temple, * * * as provided for in the constitution, with the monthly dues and assessments paid in at the time of his * * * death, as the record of the Grand Temple and Tabernacle will sustain the fact." William Grayson had not paid the monthly dues and assessments, but died leaving them unpaid, as found by the jury. Under the laws of the society, "when the endowment tax of a Sir Knight or Daughter of Tabor fails to reach the Secretary of the Endowment Board by the twentieth day in the first month in each quarter, said Knight or Daughter of Tabor stands unfinancial with the Endowment Board of Grand Curators until the same is paid and reaches the Endowment Secretary's office."

It did not require the report of the secretary of the local society as to the delinquency of Grayson, but the mere fact that the...