Paden v. Briscoe

• Decision Date: 23 June 1891
• Citation: 17 S.W. 42
• Court: Texas Supreme Court
• Parties: PADEN v. BRISCOE <I>et al.</I><SMALL><SUP>1</SUP></SMALL>

17 S.W. 42

PADEN v. BRISCOE et al.¹

Supreme Court of Texas.

June 23, 1891.

Commissioners' decision. Section B. Appeal from district court, Milan county; JOHN N. HENDERSON, Judge.

Action on a policy of insurance on the life of John F. Briscoe by W. D. Paden, administrator of Louella Briscoe, against the Supreme Lodge Knights and Ladies of Honor, and Leonard Isaacs, administrator of John F. Briscoe, husband of plaintiff's intestate. Mary Briscoe and Kate Briscoe, the mother and sister of John F. Briscoe, intervened, claiming the fund paid into court by the defendant lodge. Trial to the court, judgment for intervenors, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

W. T. Hefley and D. D. Wallace, for appellant. Ford & Ford, for appellee.

FISHER, J.

This suit was instituted by appellant, as administrator of the estate of Louella Briscoe, deceased, against the Supreme Lodge Knights and Ladies of Honor, a mutual benefit life insurance company, and Leonard Isaacs, administrator of the estate of John F. Briscoe, deceased, upon two relief fund certificates or policies issued and delivered to John F. Briscoe, May 1, 1884. Appellant, among other things, alleges that his intestate, Louella Briscoe, was the wife of John F. Briscoe, and that John F. Briscoe died on June 4, 1888, and that his intestate was named as beneficiary in the certificates or policies, and that Leonard Isaacs was asserting some pretended claim to said policies. The defendant Supreme Lodge Knights and Ladies of Honor answered, and admitted its liability in the policies sued on, and brought the money into court subject to the result of the litigation between the parties. On November 19, 1888, the appellees intervened in the case, claiming the policies, and funds arising therefrom, as the mother and sister of John F. Briscoe, being his sole heirs dependent upon him, and that the beneficiary named in said policies, Louella Briscoe, died before her husband, or at the same time he died, and that by virtue of the laws of the association they were entitled to the proceeds of the policies. Appellant filed a general denial to the plea of intervention. The case was tried before the court without a jury, and judgment was rendered in favor of intervenors against all the other parties to the suit for the $2,000, amount of said certificates or policies.

The case is here upon the conclusions of law and facts found by the court, substantially as follows: "The defendant the Knights and Ladies of Honor, an incorporated company under the laws of this state, admitted its liabilities, and deposited in court $2,000, the amount of the policies, and asked that the court relieve it of further liability in the premises, and the right to the fund be adjudicated between the parties without cost to it. That John F. Briscoe was a member of Pearl Lodge, K. & L. of H., Rockdale, Texas, and that during his life-time, and while a member of said lodge, he procured two benefit policies of insurance upon his life for the benefit of his wife, Mrs. Louella Briscoe, said policies in terms as follows: `This certificate, issued by Supreme Lodge Knights and Ladies of Honor, witnesseth, that John F. Briscoe, a member of Pearl Lodge, No. 32, of said order, located at Rockdale, in the state of Texas, is entitled to all the rights and privileges of membership in the order of Knights and Ladies of Honor, and to participate in the relief fund of the order to the amount of one thousand dollars, which sum shall at his death be paid to his wife, Louella Briscoe. This certificate is issued upon the express condition that said John F. Briscoe shall in every particular, while a member of said order, comply with all the laws, rules, and requirements thereof.' Signed by the supreme protector, John T. Milburn, May 1, 1884. No. 21,781, class A. No. 4,539 in class B is substantially the same. That said K. & L. of H. had as parts of its constitution, rules, and by-laws governing its members, and entering into its benefit policies, the following to-wit: From charter, § 1: `The corporate name of this association shall be "Supreme Lodge Knights and Ladies of Honor," and be capable in law of suing and being sued, and owning property, instituting grand and subordinate lodges, under such laws, rules, and regulations as the corporation has enacted, or may enact, not in conflict with the laws of this state and the United States.' Section 2: `The object of the corporation shall be to unite fraternally all acceptable white persons, male and female; to give all possible moral 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...