Supreme Lodge Knights of Honor v. Keener

• Decision Date: 01 February 1894
• Citation: 25 S.W. 1084
• Parties: SUPREME LODGE KNIGHTS OF HONOR v. KEENER.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

25 S.W. 1084

SUPREME LODGE KNIGHTS OF HONOR v. KEENER.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas.

February 1, 1894.

Appeal from district court, Rusk county; Richard B. Levy, Special Judge.

Action by Alice B. Keener against Supreme Lodge Knights of Honor. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed.

John R. Arnold and Frederick H. Bacon, for appellant. W. C. Buford and J. H. Turner, for appellee.

PLEASANTS, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment rendered in favor of appellee, the beneficiary of a benefit certificate issued to L. J. Keener, the husband of appellee, by the appellant, on the 25th of November, 1881, stipulating for the payment of $2,000 to his wife upon the death of said L. J. Keener, upon the condition, among others, that he comply with the laws and rules and regulations governing the order, or that thereafter may be enacted for its government, and that he is in good standing in his lodge at the time of his death. The pleadings of both plaintiff and defendant were both lengthy and numerous, including various exceptions by each party to the pleadings of the other. Defendant, besides general and special exceptions and general denial, pleaded in bar of the suit a failure of the said L. J. Keener to perform the conditions upon which payment of the sum contracted for in the certificate was to be made to his wife; that by his failure to pay assessments due from him the said Keener was not a member of the Supreme Lodge Knights of Honor, or of any of its subordinate lodges, at the time of his death, but was suspended from membership by reason of his failure and neglect to pay said assessments, and that by reason thereof the said certificate became null and void. Upon trial of the cause, January 18, 1893, verdict and judgment were rendered for appellee for $2,000, with interest thereon from February 1, 1890, and, a motion for new trial being overruled, the defendant appealed.

The appellant has made many assignments of error, but the disposition we make of the appeal relieves us from considering most of them The plaintiff was the wife of L. J. Keener, who died on the 12th of July, 1888, and is entitled to recover, unless the certificate was forfeited. The defendant is a corporation chartered by the state of Missouri, and is a charitable fraternity, composed of a supreme lodge and subordinate lodges, and known as the "Knights of Honor." The supreme lodge alone is incorporated, and is the representative of the order. The funds from which the benefit certificates issued to members are paid is called the "Widows' and Orphans' Benefit Fund," and is raised by monthly assessments upon every member of every subordinate lodge of the order or fraternity. The evidence adduced upon the trial established the following facts: L. J. Keener became a member of the order in 1881, and paid his assessments and dues regularly, and otherwise demeaned himself as became a member of the fraternity, until April 1, 1888, and after that time he ceased to pay either his assessments made by the supreme lodge or his dues to the subordinate lodge of which he was a member. On the 5th of April, 1888, the latter lodge declared him suspended from membership by reason of his failure to pay certain assessments and dues, and from that date to the 7th of July following there was no meeting of said lodge. On the day last mentioned Keener appeared before the lodge, then in regular session, and asked to be reinstated, offering to pay all assessments and dues and fines with which he was chargeable. The application does not seem to have been in writing. The lodge, by its proper officer, in response to his application for reinstatement, informed him that, more than 60 days having expired since he was suspended, he must first present a certificate from the proper medical officers of the order, touching the state of his health, before his application could be considered, and he was furnished with a blank certificate, and the lodge then adjourned. On the 8th of the month the medical examiner made examination of Keener's condition, and found his health to be perfect, and gave him a certificate to that effect, which was, under the rules and regulations of the order, forwarded for his approval to the medical examiner of the grand lodge; but before the certificate was returned from the latter officer Keener died from injuries received from a moving train of cars. He was wounded on the 11th and died on the 12th of July, 1888. On the 12th, before his death, he was visited by the reporter of his lodge, the officer whose duty it was to receive the assessments due from the members of the lodge, and was requested to pay the assessments which were then due from him; and, under instructions from Keener, his wife, the plaintiff, then paid the amount demanded by the reporter, and this sum, after Keener's death, was returned to the plaintiff, and subsequently a memorial was sent by the local lodge from which Keener was suspended to the supreme lodge, praying that the claim of the plaintiff be allowed and paid, which memorial was refused, and the claim rejected. It is not shown that Keener made any effort to procure a session of the lodge between April and July, 1888, except by testimony which was hearsay, and which was erroneously admitted by the court, over objection of defendant. The laws of the order required that there should be monthly sessions of each subordinate lodge, and a member suspended could only be reinstated by a vote of the lodge, taken when in regular session. Between April and July, 1888, while there was no session of the lodge, the assessments upon its members were collected by the reporter, and transmitted to the treasurer of the supreme lodge, and within that time Keener was spoken to by a member of the lodge, who advised him to resume his connection with the lodge, and in this conversation Keener admitted that he had neglected to pay his assessments. The evidence further shows that between April and July there was no change made by the supreme reporter, who was authorized to do so, if he deemed it necessary, in the number of the assessments for each month upon each member of the subordinate lodges.

It is insisted by appellee that Keener was not legally suspended by his lodge in this: that there was no vote taken upon the question of his suspension, nor was he suspended for any...