Supreme Lodge Knights of Honor v. Hahn

• Decision Date: 26 May 1908
• Docket Number: No. 6,289.,6,289.
• Citation: 43 Ind.App. 75,84 N.E. 837
• Parties: SUPREME LODGE KNIGHTS OF HONOR v. HAHN.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

43 Ind.App. 75

84 N.E. 837

SUPREME LODGE KNIGHTS OF HONOR

v.HAHN.

No. 6,289.¹

Appellate Court of Indiana, Division No. 2.

May 26, 1908.

Appeal from Superior Court, Vanderburgh County; Alexander Gilchrist, Judge.

Action by Anna A. Hahn against the Supreme Lodge Knights of Honor. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed.

Frederick H. Bacon and De Bruler, Welman & De Bruler, for appellant. George K. Denton, for appellee.

RABB, C. J.

The appellant is a fraternal beneficial association. Jacob P. Hahn was a member of the association, and held a benefit certificate therein which named the appellee as the beneficiary. Said Hahn died on the 10th day of November, 1905, and this action was brought by the appellee in the court below upon the certificate. The appellant answered in four paragraphs. The appellee replied in two paragraphs. The cause was submitted to a jury for trial, verdict returned in favor of the appellee, appellant's motion for a new trial overruled, and judgment rendered in favor of the appellee on the verdict.

No question is raised in this court on the sufficiency of the pleading, and the sole question presented by the record for our consideration arises upon appellant's motion for a new trial, the overruling of which is assigned as error here. Among the causes assigned for a new trial are that the verdict is not sustained by the evidence, and that the verdict of the jury is contrary to law. The evidence is set out in the record, and shows without contradiction that the appellant is a fraternal beneficial order governed by a constitution and by-laws; that there are within the organization several distinct bodies having distinct offices to perform, the Supreme Lodge being the governing body; that one of the objects of the order is in the nature of life insurance, to provide for the payment of a sum of money to the person named by the member in a benefit certificate issued to him by the Supreme Lodge upon the death of the member holding such certificate who has complied with all the laws, rules, and regulations of the order; that this payment is to be made from a distinct fund provided by the laws of the order for that purpose known as the “Widows' and Orphans' Benefit Fund,” and which is derived solely from monthly assessments made upon the members holding such certificates; that the control of this fund is under the exclusive management of the Supreme Lodge; that one of the bodies forming a part of this order is the local or subordinate lodge, which has a distinct organization of its own; that the monthly assessments for the maintenance of the widows' and orphans' benefit fund are not paid directly by the members to any officer of the Supreme Lodge, but are paid to the financial reporter of the local lodge, who turns them over to the treasurer of the local lodge. The laws of the order fix the monthly assessments, and require each member to pay such assessments, without notice, to the financial reporter or his lodge on or before the last day of each month, and each local lodge is, under the laws of the order, responsible to the Supreme Lodge for the assessment of all members reported by the officers of the local lodge to be in good standing. On or before the 10th day of each month the treasurer of the local lodge was required to transmit to the treasurer of the Supreme Lodge all assessments paid over to him by the members on account of the widows' and orphans' benefit fund, and to accompany the funds with a report showing the number of members of the local lodge in good standing, with the names of those who since the last report have died or become suspended, but not the names of the members of the lodge in good standing, and the amount of the assessment so transmitted was required to correspond with the number of members reported in good standing in the lodge. This report was required to be signed by the treasurer, the reporter, and the financial reporter of the local lodge.

It is disclosed by the evidence that the only means the Supreme Lodge had of knowing the names of members who had failed to pay their assessments in accordance with the provisions of the laws of the order was this report made by the treasurer and the financial reporter. It is shown that in the year 1882 Jacob P. Hahn became a member of the order, and that the certificate sued upon was issued to him by the Supreme Lodge; that he continued to be a member of the lodge in good standing until the month of March, 1904, when he was suspended for failure to pay the January and February assessments for that year; that upon his application made in conformity with the rules and laws of the order he was on the 22d day of March, 1904, unconditionally reinstated by his lodge; that he afterwards failed to pay the April and May assessments for that year, and was reported by the officers of the local lodge in their monthly report to the Supreme Lodge for the month of May following, made on the 12th day of May, as suspended for failure to pay the April assessment; that on the 8th day of June, 1904, his daughters, acting for said Hahn, offered to pay to the financial reporter of the local lodge the April and May assessments against Hahn, which payment the reporter declined to receive, stating at the time that their father had been suspended for nonpayment of the April assessment, and that it would be necessary that he should be reinstated. The financial reporter also testified, and his testimony is undisputed, and there is no just ground for disbelieving it, that on the 10th day of June he had a conversation with Hahn, in which he urged Hahn to apply for reinstatement in the lodge; that Hahn said in answer to him that “h...