The Ga. Masonic Ins. Co. v. Davis

• Citation: 63 Ga. 472
• Parties: The Georgia Masonic Insurance Company. v. Davis et al.,executors.
• Decision Date: 30 September 1879
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

63 Ga. 472

The Georgia Masonic Insurance Company. v. Davis et al., executors.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

(September Term, 1879.)

Statute of limitations. Corporations. Before Judge Simmons. Bibb Superior Court. April Term, 1879.

Reported in the opinion.

*Lanier & Anderson, for plaintiff in error.

Lyon & Gresham; Washington Dessau; Davis & Nottingham, for defendants.

Bleckley, Justice.

Action of complaint was brought by the defendants in error, both as executors and as trustees in respect to the fund sued for under the will of Wm. M. Davis, against the plaintiff in error, for a balance claimed as insurance upon the life of said Wm. M. Davis. The suit was commenced June 25th, 1877, Davis having died January 6th, 1870. The declaration, as amended, counted on the charter and the by-laws of the insurance company, together with an instrument in the following terms, dated May 15th, 1867, and signed by the president of the company, and countersigned by the secretary: "This is to certify that William M. Davis, a master mason, and a member of Houston Lodge, No. 555, has paid the admittance fee of six dollars, and was elected a member of the Georgia Masonic Mutual Life Insurance Company on the 15th of May, 1867, and is entitled to all the be eats of said association upon his paying one dollar and ten cents within ten days after receiving notice of the death of any member of the company."

The charter of the company was an act of the general assembly, approved October 7th, 1868. This act created certain named persons and their associates and successors, a body politic and corporate, for the purpose of insuring the lives of each other, upon the payment, by each member of the company, of such sum or sums as might be prescribed by the laws and regulations of the corporation. It declared that the members should be master masons, in good standing, and that the amount due upon the decease of a member should be paid to the person or persons entitled to the same according to the by-laws, or to such person orpersons as the member might designate by his last will; and that in *all cases the same should be paid to such person or persons as might be entitled thereto, free from any debt, contract or liability of the deceased member, and not to be subject to any lien against him by judgment or otherwise. Pamph. acts 1868, p. 54. The by-laws of the corporation divided the members into several classes, and provided for making a call by the company upon survivors for a contribution of one dollar and ten cents each, on the death of any member of their class. Proofs of death were required to be made, and within sixty days after their reception and approval, the insurance upon the life of the deceased member was to become due from the company. The by-laws designated to whom payment was to be made in case of no appointment by will.

The company pleaded to the action not indebted, payment and the statute of limitations. Evidence was introduced at the trial by both parties. The jury found for the plaintiffs below, and the defendant moved for a new trial on several grounds, among them, because the court erred in charging the jury that the limitation period applicable to the action was not six years, but twenty years. The correctness or incorrectness of this charge was the only matter argued in-the supreme court.

The real question is, whether the liability sought to be enforced by the action is statutory, or dependent upon a simple contract in writing. The Code declares that, "all suits for the enforcement of rights accruing to individuals under statutes, acts of incorporation, or by operation of law, shall be brought within...