Lorcher v. Supreme Lodge Knights of Honor

• Decision Date: 01 November 1888
• Citation: 40 N.W. 545,72 Mich. 316
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: LORCHER v. SUPREME LODGE KNIGHTS OF HONOR.

40 N.W. 545

72 Mich. 316

LORCHER v. SUPREME LODGE KNIGHTS OF HONOR.

Supreme Court of Michigan

November 1, 1888

Error to circuit court, Berrien county; THOMAS O'HARA, Judge.

On rehearing. ^[1] Action by Mina Lorcher against the Supreme Lodge Knights of Honor, as beneficiary in the certificate of membership issued to John Lorcher, her deceased husband. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error.

E M. Plimpton, (George S. Clapp, of counsel,) for appellee.

CHAMPLIN J.

Defendant is a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Missouri. The object of the corporation is stated in section 2 of the certificate of organization, as follows: "Sec 2. The objects of the corporation shall be to unite fraternally all acceptable white men of every profession business, and occupation; to give all possible and material aid in its power to its members, and those depending on its members, by holding moral, instructive, and scientific lectures, by encouraging each other in business, and by assisting each other to obtain employment; and to promote benevolence and charity by establishing a widows' and orphans' benefit fund, by contributions from members of the order of Knights of Honor, from which, upon satisfactory evidence of the death of a member of the said order, who is a contributor to said fund at the time, and who has complied with its lawful requirements, a sum not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000) shall be paid to member or members of his family, or person or persons dependent on him, as he may direct and designate by name; to provide for creating a fund or funds for the relief of sick and distressed members and to ameliorate the condition of humanity in every possible manner." Section 7 of said certificate provides: "The said supreme lodge shall have power to create, hold, and disburse the funds named in the objects of the corporation for promoting benevolence, and relieving the sick and distressed, under such constitutions, laws, and regulations as it has now adopted, or may deem necessary to adopt; and said fund shall be exempt from execution, and shall under no circumstances be liable to seizure or appropriation by any legal or equitable process, or to any debt or debts of its living or deceased members; and said fund shall be exempt from the laws, rules, and regulations governing the insurance bureau of this state." The corporation adopted constitutions, laws, and regulations for creating, holding, and disbursing the funds referred to forming a complete system, which constitute the laws and rules by which all the rights, interests, duties, and obligations of the members are defined, regulated, controlled, and enforced, and the rights and obligations of the corporation are prescribed. These constitutions, laws, and regulations prescribe and point out the method of becoming members of the supreme and subordinate lodges, and when and in what manner the beneficiary named by a member of a subordinate lodge becomes entitled to share in the fund provided for the benefit of widows and orphans. A candidate, possessing the requisite qualifications, must sign a written application in a prescribed form, in which he must designate the beneficiary. A committee of three is then appointed to investigate his character, and, if found favorable, one of the committee accompanies the candidate to the lodge medical examiner, who makes an examination, and the applicant is required to answer in writing certain questions, and the medical examiner is required to make a certificate; and his examination and certificate, if he approve the candidate, is forwarded to the state medical examiner, who makes a report thereon, and, if favorable, then upon payment of the fees prescribed by the lodge, and the amount required to be paid into the fund for the benefit of the widows and orphans, he is initiated into the lodge, and receives the degree of "Manhood." The assessments which he must thereafter pay depends upon his age when initiated. If between 18 and 45, it is one dollar for each assessment, and every member must pay at least two assessments each month, unless otherwise ordered by the supreme reporter; which assessments are to be made on or before the end of each month. After the member is initiated, the initial assessment must be forwarded by the lodge with the first assessments called to the supreme lodge subsequent to the date of his obtaining the degree. Such assessments are required to be forwarded to the supreme treasurer between the 1st and 10th day of each month. Every lodge is required to forward to the supreme reporter all applications for beneficiary membership immediately after the applicant receives the degree, and with each application one dollar to pay for a benefit certificate, and for making record of membership. Each applicant must enter upon his application the name or names of, and relationship or dependence of, the members of his family, or those dependent upon him, to whom he desires his benefit paid, and the same is required to be entered in the benefit certificate according to said direction, and no will is permitted to control the appointment or distribution of, or rights of, any person, to any benefit payable by the order. On receipt of the application and fee, the supreme reporter enters the name, age, occupation, date of taking the degree, amount of one assessment, and such other facts as may be deemed necessary, upon a register, the roll of each lodge by itself, and indexed. He numbers and files the application in his office, and returns to the reporter of the subordinate lodge a benefit certificate, signed by the supreme dictator and himself, under the seal of the supreme lodge, and made payable as the member shall have directed in his application; and the subordinate lodge is required to enter upon record the number thereof. It is this benefit certificate which completes the contract relations between the corporation and the members of the subordinate lodges. These benefit certificates contain the only engagement and promise to pay which the member receives from the corporation, and it is designated in the constitutions, laws, and regulations as the document which creates the liability of the corporation to pay the beneficiary therein named according to its terms. The only purpose for which the name of the beneficiary is inserted in the application is to apprise the supreme reporter to whom the benefit is to be paid, that he may insert the name in the benefit certificate. After it is inserted in the certificate, that becomes the guide and controlling document in all future transactions with the member and with the beneficiary. The beneficiary has no present interest, during the life of the member, either in the certificate or fund from which payment is to be made. The member may at his pleasure, upon complying with the regulations of the supreme lodge, change the beneficiary named in his benefit certificate; and hence the beneficiary named in the application may not be the beneficiary to whom the corporation is obliged to pay. If the benefit certificate be lost or destroyed or beyond the control of the member, he may in writing surrender all claim thereto, and direct a new certificate to be issued to him, payable to the same or other beneficiary, in accordance with the laws of the order. The issuing of such new benefit certificate shall cancel and render void all previous certificates issued to such member. A full-rate member may change to a half-rate member; but he must first surrender his benefit certificate, and receive a new half-rate benefit certificate. He may withdraw entirely from the order, and receive a "final card," by paying in full all assessments and dues, and surrendering his benefit certificate. By article 7, �� 14, 15, the subordinate lodges, reporters, financial reporters, and treasurers of subordinate lodges, in making remittances for the widows' and orphans' fund, in giving notice of assessments, and in collecting and forwarding assessments to the supreme treasurer, are declared to be the agents for the members of their lodges, and shall not be the agents of the supreme lodge. Failure to pay assessments by a member operates as a suspension, and terminates his right, and that of his beneficiary, to any payment from or participation in the widows' and orphans' fund. Likewise any failure or neglect of the subordinate lodge to forward all assessments due from its members to the supreme treasurer before the 10th day of each month operates ipso facto to suspend from the lodge, and every member of such lodge, after the lapse of 30 days from the recording of such suspension, is precluded from the benefits of said fund. Provision is made for reinstatement within 30 days, but unless it is done in that time no member dying after that time is entitled to any payment from the corporation, unless he held a withdrawal or traveling card, unexpired. The beneficiary's right to receive anything from the fund provided for widows and orphans arises only on the death of a member, and complying with certain requirements of the constitutions, laws, and regulations. These requirements are that the member at the time of his death shall have been in good standing in his lodge, and shall have paid all the assessments to the widows' and orphans' fund. Article 7, � 5, provides: "On the death of a member who has attained the degree of the subordinate lodge, the reporter of his lodge shall immediately forward to the supreme reporter a notice of such death. Such notice must state the number of his benefit certificate, his name and age, the date he was admitted to the degree, the date of his death, the amount he has paid into the widows' and orphans' benefit fund, and that he was in good standing, and...