Jepson v. Int'l Fraternal Alliance

• Decision Date: 01 August 1891
• Citation: 17 R.I. 471,23 A. 15
• Parties: JEPSON v. INTERNATIONAL FRATERNAL ALLIANCE.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

23 A. 15

17 R.I. 471

JEPSON

v. INTERNATIONAL FRATERNAL ALLIANCE.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Aug. 1, 1891.

Petition for new trial.

Jacob W. Mathewson, for plaintiff.

Charles A. Wilson and Thomas A. Jenckes, for defendant.

PER CURIAM. At the trial in the court of common pleas, counsel, as amicus curiæ moved that the action be dismissed, because, as alleged, there has been no valid service of the writ upon the defendant. The only service of the writ was by attaching the personal estate of the defendants in the hands and possession of James B. Carter, and also in the hands and possession of Harriet A. Dean, as trustees of the defendant. Counsel for the garnishees also moved that they be discharged, on the ground that they were not the agents, attorneys, factors, trustees, or debtors of the defendant. The court overruled both of these motions, and exceptions were taken, which are assigned as the first two grounds for new trial in the defendant's petition.

We will consider these two matters together. It appears from the answers of the garnishees to the interrogations propounded to them that said Carter and Dean are respectively treasurers of local assemblies of the defendant order, the former in Pawtucket, and the latter in Providence; that under the constitution and by-laws of the defendant it is their duty as such treasurers to receipt all notices for payments due from members of their respective assemblies, and on the first day of each month forward to the secretary of the cabinet of the defendant, on blanks furnished for the purpose, and remit for the same at the same time, a report of all moneys collected by him or her during the previous month. Each of them, as such treasurer, is required by the constitutions and by-laws of the defendant to give, and each of them had given, to the cabinet of the order a bond to cover any and all moneys that they might have in their hands at any time. By the charter of the order it is provided that the corporation shall be managed by not less than four nor more than twelve elected trustees, selected at the annual meeting of the order from the congress then assembled, in accordance with the constitution and bylaws. This board of management of the defendant is styled its "cabinet." It was contended on behalf of the defendant and the garnishees that the moneys which the answers to the interrogatories propounded to the latter disclosed to be in their hands and possession at the time of the service of the writ, and which had been paid to them, respectively, by the members of their respective assemblies upon assessment by the defendant, were moneys of the members of the local assemblies, and not of the defendant, since these garnishees had not been appointed by the defendant as its officers or agents, but were officers of the local assemblies, and agents of the members of these assemblies. We are of the opinion, however, that after the moneys had been paid by the members of the local assemblies to the garnishees, such members ceased to have any ownership or control over them, as they would have done if the garnishees had been their agent. On receiving these moneys it became the duty of the garnishees to hold them for the benefit of the defendant, not, indeed, as its agents, but as trustees for it; and they became accountable to it, as such, for these...