Modern Woodmen American v. Crudup

• Decision Date: 15 October 1935
• Docket Number: Case Number: 24663
• Parties: MODERN WOODMEN OF AMERICA v. CRUDUP.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

1935 OK 985

51 P.2d 718

175 Okla. 183

MODERN WOODMEN OF AMERICA v. CRUDUP.

Case Number: 24663

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: October 15, 1935

Syllabus

¶0 1. INSURANCE--VaIidity of lnsurance Contract of Foreign Corporation Limiting Liability to Case Where There Is Posirive Proof of Death.

An insurance contract of a foreign corporation which provides that a liability arising from the disappearance of a member, or the presumption of the death of a member arising from any such disappearance, shall not be incurred by the insurer, and that it shall only be liable for the payment of a death claim when there is proof of the actual death of a beneficiary member, will be enforced in this state when the contract emanates from a state wherein the rule of law exists that such provision is valid.

2. INSURANCE--Action Life Policy in Fraternal Beneficiary Association Held Properly Brought by Heir of Deceased Beneficiary Without Alleging Decased Left no Debts ll Administration Requiring on Upon Estate.

Under section 10576, O. S. 1931, the proceeds derived from a beneficiary certificate n a fraternal association are not liable for the debt of the certificate holder or of uny beneficiary named in any certificate or any person who may have a right thereunder, and the heir of a deceased beneficiary may maintain an action in her personal capacity and as assignee of other heirs of decedent on a life policy in a fraternal beneficiary association providing for payment to said decedent of benefits without alleging that deceased left no debts requiring administration upon deceased's estate.

Appeal from District Court, Tulsa County; Harry L. S. Halley, Judge.

Action by Jessie Crudup against the Modern Woodmen of America to recover on a policy of insurance. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed, with directions.

C. B. McCrory, Geo. G. Perrin, and Geo. H. McDonald, for plaintiff in error.

Norman Barker, for defendant in error.

PER CURIAM.

¶1 The defendant is a fraternal insurance association, chartered, organized and existing under the laws of the state of Illinois, with its home or principal office in that state. The certificate was issued pursuant to the laws of Illinois on February 18, 1902, to Arthur O. Weir, in the sum of $ 3,000, payable upon his death to his wife, Ida Weir, or "to his legal heirs." The policy was in full force and effect in January, 1921, when Arthur O. Weir left his home in Ada, Okla., to seek employment, and he has not been seen or heard from since. His family consisted of his wife and six children. On May 2, 1931, the wife, Ida Weir, died leaving surviving the plaintiff and her five brothers and sisters, children of the insured and the original beneficiary, Ida Weir. There was correspondence between the defendant and the plaintiff over a period of years about the payment of this policy. Payment was refused. It is unnecessary to consider this correspondence now. The premiums on the policy were paid until January, 1982, and on April 16, 1932, this action was brought.

¶2 The plaintiff alleges that she affd her five brothers and sisters, naming them, were the children and sole heirs of Ida Weir, deceased. She attached written assignments from the five brothers and sisters, assigning their interests to her. She alleged that Arthur O. Weir, "in 1921 left home and died," and the facts as to his absence for more than seven years; that his whereabouts had been unknown, and that he had been unheard of since his disappearance.

¶3 The certificate provided that it was subject to all conditions in it and the by-laws of the society "as the same now exist or may be hereafter modified, amended, or enacted. * * *" The by-laws of the society, enacted in 1908 and subsequent years, and in force at the time of the insured's disappearance, provided that:

"No * * * absence or disappearance on the part of a member * * * without proof of actual death of said member * * * shall entitle any beneficiary to recover. * * * The disappearance or long continued absence of any member, Unheard of, shall not be regarded as any evidence of death, or give any right to recover on any benefit certificate.

¶4 The defendant pleaded and offered in evidence these by-laws and the opinion of the Supreme Court of Illinois in the case of Steen v. Modern Woodmen of America. 296 Ill. 104, 129 N.E. 546, adjudging them to be valid. The court refused to udmit this opinion. It is evident that the trial court, in this ruling and in his instructions to the jury, followed the case of Modern Woodmen of America v. Michelin, 101 Okla. 217, 225 P. 163. Plaintiff relied on this case as decisive of this issue and the trial court gave the jury an instruction, duly objected to by defendant, taken almost verbatim from it.

¶5 In the Michelin Case, supra, the court had under consideration an insurance policy and by-laws identical in terms with the ones now under consideration, and this same plaintiff in error made the same contentions in the trial court and in the Supreme Court as made here. This court, in that case, in 1924, held that the rule as to the presumption of death after seven years' absence could not be abrogated by contract, and that said bylaws were contrary to public policy and void. In 1925, the Supreme Court of the United States, in Modern Woodmen of America v. Mixer, 267 U.S. 544, 45 S. Ct. 389, 69 L. Ed. 783, reversed a decision...