Heydorf v. Conrack

• Decision Date: 01 January 1898
• Docket Number: 288
• Citation: 7 Kan.App. 202,52 P. 700
• Parties: PETER HEYDORF et al. v. ANNIE CONRACK
• Court: Kansas Court of Appeals

52 P. 700

7 Kan.App. 202

PETER HEYDORF et al. v. ANNIE CONRACK

No. 288

Court of Appeals of Kansas, Northern Department, Central Division

January 1, 1898

Opinion Filed January 31, 1898.

Error from Marshall district court; R. B. SPILMAN, judge. Affirmed.

Judgment affirmed.

Strong & Scoville, for plaintiffs in error.

J. A Boughten, for defendant in error.

OPINION

WELLS, J.:

On the 27th day of July, 1896, John Heydorf was a member of and the holder of a beneficiary certificate in the Knights and Ladies of Security, a beneficiary society, the chief governing authority of which is a national council, located at Topeka Kan., the subordinate council of which he was a member being located at St. Joseph, Mo. The beneficiary certificate was made payable in case of death to the heirs of John Heydorf, without naming them. He was sick in a hospital in St. Joseph, Mo., and was visited by J. H. Johnson, a member of the same order, and O. H. Andrews, a bridge superintendent under whose direction he had previously worked. At his request, the certificate was procured from his trunk, in Elwood, the blank on the face filled out, revoking his former direction as to the payment of the fund due at his death, and directing such payment to be made to his daughter, Annie Conrack. This was signed in person by John Heydorf, in the presence of Johnson and Andrews. At his request, Johnson took the certificate with this indorsement on it to the corresponding secretary, who attested it, as required by the rules of the order, but, as he was in attendance at another meeting and could not leave, he gave Johnson the key to his desk, and told him to attach the seal and send it off by mail. Johnson attached the seal, wrote a letter in the name of the corresponding secretary, and inclosed the certificate and letter, with fifty cents, the fee required, in an envelope addressed to the national secretary, at Topeka. But before the same was mailed, the next morning, Heydorf died, and Johnson inclosed in the same cover another letter announcing such death.

Upon this state of facts, the national secretary declined to issue a new certificate, and commenced this case in the court below, brought the money into court, and asked it to adjudicate the conflicting claims thereto. The court below awarded the money to the beneficiary last designated, and to reverse this the matter is brought to this court.

There is no conflicting evidence in the case, and the only real question is, Was the last designation of a beneficiary void by reason of Heydorf's death before the same reached the national secretary, and for that reason a new certificate was not issued? Section 3 of of article 2 of the laws of the society reads as follows:

"Any member holding a beneficiary certificate, desiring to make a new direction as to its payment, may do so by authorizing such change, in writing, on the back of his certificate in the form prescribed, attested by the corresponding secretary with the seal of the council attached, and by the payment to the national council of the sum of fifty cents. No change of direction shall be valid, or have any binding force or effect, until said change shall have been reported to the national secretary, the old certificate filed with him, and a new certificate issued thereon, and said new certificate shall be numbered the same as the old certificate; provided, however, should it be impracticable for the corresponding secretary to witness the change desired by the member, attestation may be made by a notary public, or an officer of a court of record, seal to be attached in attest; provided further, in case any beneficiary certificate shall have been lost or destroyed, or is in the hands or keeping of any one who refuses to surrender its possession, and the...