The Grand Lodge of The Ancient Order of United Workmen of The State of Kansas v. Crandall

• Decision Date: 05 June 1909
• Docket Number: 16,043
• Citation: 80 Kan. 332,102 P. 843
• Parties: THE GRAND LODGE OF THE ANCIENT ORDER OF UNITED WORKMEN OF THE STATE OF KANSAS v. SYLVIA MAY CRANDALL et al., Minors, etc
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

102 P. 843

80 Kan. 332

THE GRAND LODGE OF THE ANCIENT ORDER OF UNITED WORKMEN OF THE STATE OF KANSAS v. SYLVIA MAY CRANDALL et al., Minors, etc

No. 16,043

Supreme Court of Kansas

June 5, 1909

Decided January, 1909.

Error from Cherokee district court; CORB A. MCNEILL, judge.

STATEMENT.

THIS action was tried upon an agreed statement of facts, in substance as follow: H. D. Hart became a member of a subordinate lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, a fraternal benefit order, on April 16, 1895, and received a beneficiary certificate therein for $ 2000, payable to his wife. He paid an advance assessment of $ 1 at that time which was credited to the assessment for that month or fraction thereof remaining, and continued to pay assessments made in each calendar month thereafter until May or June 1898, when he became suspended and remained in suspension until September, 1899, when he was reinstated, paying at the time $ 1.45 as an advance assessment, which was credited on the assessment for that month. Afterward the beneficiary was changed and a new certificate issued, dated August 30, 1905 payable to Mr. Hart's minor children, the plaintiffs in this action. The certificate specifies that it is "to be construed and controlled by the laws of the order now in force or which may hereafter be adopted, and upon the express condition that said H. D. Hart shall in every particular while a member of the order comply with all the laws, rules and requirements thereof, and shall be in good standing at the time of his death."

On December 23, 1905, the local financier of his lodge wrote to Hart, who was then at Santa Rosa, Cal., where he had been for a considerable time in ill health:

"According to our record of your birth you have now attained to your fortieth birthday, which advances you into class No. 5 and your assessment to $ 2. In January, 1906, you will pay for assessment No. 1, and $ 1 dues--$ 3."

On January 3, 1906, Hart wrote from a hospital at Santa Rosa to the secretary and financier of the local lodge referring to his sickness and inability to pay; and on February 3, 1906, he again wrote to the financier a letter, mailed February 5, 1906, enclosing a post-office money-order for $ 3 for the dues and assessment due January 28, 1906, which was received by the financier February 9, 1906. Mr. Hart died at Santa Rosa, February 11, 1906. The first meeting of the local lodge after the receipt of the money-order was the regular monthly meeting held on February 13. The next day the financier, by order of the lodge, obtained the money upon the order and tendered it to the plaintiffs' mother, who refused to take it, and he then laid it upon the knee of one of the plaintiffs, saying, "I have returned the $ 3, as my lodge directed me to do."

All dues and assessments had been paid except the payments due January 28, 1906, and Hart was in good standing down to that time. The defendant, having knowledge of the death, refused to pay the plaintiff's claim, upon the ground that Hart was not in good standing when he died and that the defendant was not liable upon the certificate.

The by-laws provided for monthly assessments, to be made not later than the 8th day and payable on the 28th day of each month, and contained the following:

"The certificate of each member who has not paid such assessment on or before the 28th day of said month shall by the fact of such non-payment stand suspended, and no action on the part of the lodge or any officer thereof shall be required as essential to such suspension."

They also provided for the reinstatement of a member suspended for non-payment of assessments, upon the payment of all assessments due or pending, and an affirmative vote of the lodge, where the member applied within three months from the suspension; but this law declared:

"Neither the payment of the money to, nor the receipt thereof by the financier, nor any other officer of the lodge, shall operate to work a reinstatement until the lodge, at a stated meeting thereof, shall have affirmatively voted thereon."

After three months and before the expiration of six months a certificate of the medical examiner and other conditions were required. The constitution and bylaws also contained the following provisions:

"Any member whose beneficiary certificate has been suspended for a period of six months shall stand suspended from all benefits and privileges of the order. . . . (c) When a member shall be suspended or expelled from the order, for any cause whatever, he forfeits all the rights, benefits or privileges of the order, and his beneficiary or beneficiaries lose all right to any portion of the beneficiary fund."

"The beneficiary fund shall be composed, first, of a sum equal to the amount of one assessment, to be paid by each and every member as a part of the admission fees, and, second, from the proceeds of the assessments made from time to time upon the members, as hereinafter provided."

"No liability for the payment of any money from this fund shall arise by virtue of any beneficiary certificate, or certificate of membership, or otherwise, unless the member of the order named in such certificate shall in every particular, while a member of the order, comply with all the laws, rules and requirements thereof, and shall at the time of his death be a member of said order in this jurisdiction, in good standing."

"Each applicant upon signing the application for the Workman degree shall pay to the financier the sum of fifty cents (50c) for the beneficiary certificate, and the amount of one assessment according to his class and rate as specified in section 12 of said article 2 of this constitution, together with the fee, if any, for the Workman degree."

"There shall be due and payable, without notice, from each member of the order to the financier of the lodge of which he is a member--or, if a member holding a grand lodge card, to the grand recorder--the amount of one assessment according to his class and rate as herein specified as and for a regular assessment on each calendar month, commencing with the first calendar month after the member receives the Workman degree, or if joining by card, or reinstatement from another jurisdiction, then commencing with the first calendar month after he is elected a member of this jurisdiction, which said sum shall be due and payable on or before the 28th of the month, and shall be paid into the beneficiary fund of the lodge; and upon the failure to pay such assessment on or before the 28th day of the month the beneficiary certificate of such member shall stand suspended and all rights thereunder be forfeited. No rights under said certificate shall be restored until it has been duly reinstated by compliance by the member with the law of reinstatement stated in this article."

Similar provisions were made for the payment of quarterly dues, and for suspension upon non-payment. Another by-law provided:

"In case of the death of a...