Hunziker v. Supreme Lodge K.P.

• Citation: 78 S.W. 201,117 Ky. 418
• Parties: HUNZIKER v. SUPREME LODGE K. P.
• Decision Date: 22 January 1904
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

78 S.W. 201

117 Ky. 418

HUNZIKER v. SUPREME LODGE K. P.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

January 22, 1904

Appeal from Circuit Court, Fulton County.

"To be officially reported."

Action by Louisa Hunziker against the Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias. From a judgment in favor of defendant, plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

Robbins & Thomas, for appellant.

B. T Davis, C. S. Hardy, and Walter P. Lincoln, for appellee.

SETTLE J.

Gustave Hunziker died in the city of Hickman, Fulton county, this state, November 30, 1902, of pistol-shot wounds inflicted by his own hand. He left, surviving him, a wife, Louisa Hunziker, and a daughter, Linda Hunziker, who is his only child. Many years before his death, Gustave Hunziker, then as at the time of his death, a resident of Hickman, became a member of a lodge in that city of the secret fraternal order known as the "Knights of Pythias," the governing or chief body of which is styled "Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias." This governing body is in control of all subordinate lodges of the order, and of what is known as the "Endowment Rank," which provides insurance for its members. On December 27, 1888, Gustave Hunziker became a member of this endowment rank, and by signing the necessary application, and paying to the Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias the required membership fee, he received of it a certificate or policy of insurance, No. 21,021, whereby it agreed, in consideration of the statements contained in the written application attached to the policy, the payment of the prescribed admission fee, and the payment thereafter by the insured of all assessments as required, to pay to Louisa and Linda Hunziker, his wife and daughter, or to such other person or persons as he might thereafter direct, the sum of $2,000 upon due notice and proof of the death of the insured. After the death of Gustave Hunziker, due notice and proof of which was furnished the Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias, it refused to pay the beneficiaries in the policy the $2,000 of insurance named therein, but did offer to pay them $942.60 which they refused to accept. Thereupon this action was instituted in the lower court by the appellants beneficiaries, to recover of the appellee, Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias, the $2,000 claimed by them under the policy.

The facts as herein stated are in substance set forth in the petition, to which the appellee's answer interposes the defense that the insured, Gustave Hunziker, in entering into the contract of insurance, evidenced by the policy or certificate sued on, agreed, as recited therein, to be controlled by all the rules and regulations of the order, governing the endowment rank, then in force, or that might thereafter be enacted, and that the appellee, at its biennial convention held in Cleveland, Ohio, August 25 to September 3, 1896, enacted in due form, for the government of the endowment rank, a by-law to the effect that if the death of any member of the endowment rank, theretofore or thereafter admitted into the first, second, third, or fourth class, should result from suicide, voluntary or involuntary, whether such member be sane or insane at the time, the amount to be paid upon such member's certificate should be a sum only in proportion to the whole amount as the matured life expectancy might be to the entire expectancy at the date of the admission into the endowment rank, the expectation of life based upon the American Experience Table of Mortality in force at the time of the death to govern. It is also averred in the answer that the by-law enacted in 1896 was in force at the date of the death of the insured, that his death resulted from pistol-shot wounds inflicted by his own hand for the purpose of causing his death, and that he was in the fourth class of the endowment bank. It is further averred in the answer that, according to the American Experience Table of Mortality in force at the date of the death of Gustave Hunziker, his expectation of life at the date of his admission into the endowment bank was 29 62/100 years, that he lived 13 96/100 years thereafter, and therefore the amount due on the policy sued on was $942.60, and for this amount appellee offered to confess judgment. A demurrer was filed to the answer, and overruled by the court, to which appellants excepted. They then filed a reply in which it is averred that the by-law of September 3, 1896, mentioned in the answer, was adopted by the appellee after the enactment of section 679, Ky. St. 1903, and was never attached to the policy or certificate sued on, nor was any copy thereof so attached or offered to be attached to the policy, or delivered or offered to be delivered to appellants or the insured, nor did they or the insured ever hear or receive notice of the alleged enactment of such a by-law. It is further averred in the reply that the insured, at the time of the infliction upon himself of the wounds of which he died, "was insane, and did not have sufficient reason to know what he was doing, or to distinguish right from wrong, and did not then have sufficient will power to govern his actions by reason of his mental unsoundness, and which insane impulse, governing him at the time, he could not then resist or control." A demurrer was filed by appellee to the reply, which was sustained by the court, to which appellants excepted. Judgment was thereupon entered in appellants' favor for only $942.60 of the amount claimed by them, with interest from January 29, 1903, and costs up to the time of appellee's offer to confess judgment for the $942.60. Of that judgment the appellants complain, and its reversal is asked at the hands of this court.

It is admitted by the appellants that the insured committed suicide; therefore it is insisted for appellee that according to the terms of the certificate or policy accepted by the insured, his contract with it was governed not only by the laws of the association then in force, but also such as might thereafter be enacted by the appellee, supreme lodge, for which reason the by-law enacted by it in 1896 was also binding upon him, and, inasmuch as it provides that if any member of the endowment rank commit suicide--whether the act be voluntary or...