Miller v. Security

• Decision Date: 07 May 1904
• Docket Number: 13,262
• Citation: 76 P. 830,69 Kan. 234
• Parties: JOHN M. MILLER v. THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE KNIGHTS AND LADIES OF SECURITY et al
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

76 P. 830

69 Kan. 234

JOHN M. MILLER v. THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE KNIGHTS AND LADIES OF SECURITY et al

No. 13,262

Supreme Court of Kansas

May 7, 1904

Decided July 10, 1903; January, 1904.

Original proceeding in mandamus. First opinion ^[*] filed July 10, 1903. Writ allowed. Rehearing granted. Second opinion (which follows) filed May 7, 1904. Writ denied.

Case dismissed.

SYLLABUS

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.

1. LIFE INSURANCE -- Fraternal Beneficiary Associations -- Members Bound by Subsequent Changes in Laws and Rates. Where a fraternal beneficiary association has issued to a member a benefit certificate which is so defective in its recitals as to make reference to the by-laws of the association necessary in order to understand the exact obligations and duties of each of the parties, such by-laws are a part of the agreement, and where the certificate and by-laws make it apparent that the member agreed to be bound by subsequently-enacted by-laws, he is bound by a new law which changes and increases his rate of monthly assessments if it be reasonable and necessary to the accomplishment of the purposes of the association.

2. LIFE INSURANCE -- Change of Place of Meeting of the Association's Legislative Body Held Authorized. Where the statute under which a fraternal beneficiary association is incorporated authorizes the association so to amend or alter its by-laws as to provide for holding the meetings of its legislative body in any state or territory where it has subordinate lodges, and its governing body, at a regular meeting, has adopted a resolution to meet next at a place other than that stated in the by-laws, in another state, the meeting held under the provisions of such resolution, if otherwise regular, is authorized, and its proceedings valid.

D. C. Tillotson, T. D. Humphreys, and T. H. Bain, for plaintiff.

David Overmyer, Samuel Dalton, G. A. Huron, and D. W. Mulvane, for defendants.

GREENE J. All the Justices concurring.

OPINION

GREENE, J.:

This is an original proceeding in mandamus. The Knights and Ladies of Security is a fraternal beneficiary association. S. R. Tuttle was the financial secretary of Columbia council No. 50, a subordinate council of said association, and all dues were payable to him. John M. Miller was a member in good standing of council No. 50 up to July, 1902. The plaintiff was a level-rate member and his dues were payable monthly. In July, 1902, he tendered to the financial secretary all dues which he claimed were owing by him for that month, which were refused. On July 31 the financial secretary declared and entered the plaintiff as a delinquent, and suspended him for the non-payment of his July assessment.

This action was brought to compel the association and the financial secretary to accept from plaintiff the amount so tendered in full payment of his assessment for the month of July, 1902, and to reinstate him as a member in good standing. An alternative writ was allowed, to which the defendant makes return, in substance, that the amount so tendered by the plaintiff as his July assessment was less than the actual amount due from him; that plaintiff's contract with the association is made up of its charter, which is chapter 23, Laws of 1898, as amended by chapter 147 Laws of 1899 (Gen. Stat. 1901, §§ 3568-3584), the code of laws of the order in force when plaintiff became a member and as subsequently changed, and his application and certificate; that because of the nature and purpose of the association and the express terms of plaintiff's contract the association reserved the right to make any change in its by-laws reasonable and necessary to the accomplishment of its general purpose; that in pursuance of such reserve power the national council, at its biennial meeting held at Louisville, Ky., in 1902, so amended its by-laws as to require all level-rate members belonging, to plaintiff's class of risks, who held certificates issued prior to March 1, 1896, which provided for a level mortuary rate of a fifty-cent monthly assessment on each $ 1000, to pay a graduated rate as of the age when admitted, thus raising the plaintiff's rate from fifty cents to seventy cents per month on each $ 1000 of insurance.

The plaintiff denies that he consented to the reservation of such power by the association, and alleges that the meeting of the national council held at Louisville, Ky., was without authority and in violation of one of the by-laws of the order, which provides that all meetings of the national council shall be held in the city of Topeka; that therefore its act placing plaintiff on the graduated list was void. Some other contentions are made by both parties, but we do not deem them of sufficient importance to be entitled to special consideration.

The local affairs of the order are controlled and managed by local or subordinate councils and its general affairs by a national council. The latter is composed of national officers and representatives from the states. The representatives are elected by the members from each state where the order is established, and are apportioned one for each state and one for every 1000 members, or major fraction thereof. The by-laws of the association in force when the plaintiff became a member which are necessary to a right understanding and determination of the questions presented were the following:

"SECTION 1. The National Council of the Knights and Ladies of Security shall, alone, have the power to amend the constitution, ritual, laws and rules of discipline of the order, and it shall exercise all the powers of a supreme body of associations similar to this.

"SEC. 2. Its decisions on all matters pertaining to the order shall be final. It shall hear and decide all appeals, redress all grievances, and provide by legislation for the enforcement of its decisions.

"SEC. 3. It shall have the power to grant charters to councils; to form them into state meetings, so that they may be properly represented in national meetings. It shall have the power, by a vote of two-thirds of the members present at any meeting, to deprive a council of its charter; provided, such deprivation or annulment shall be made only for the violation of the constitution or commands of the national council or of the national executive committee.

"SEC. 4. It shall have exclusive jurisdiction of all councils of the order, and shall have the right and power to collect all assessments for the general, beneficiary and reserve funds."

It is stated that the purpose and object of the organization is

"to unite both sexes in one grand fraternal association for the promotion of benevolence, charity, social culture, mental improvement, education, care for the sick and needy, to aid one...