White v. Greene

• Decision Date: 01 June 1921
• Citation: White v. Greene, 96 Conn. 265, 114 A. 112 (Conn. 1921)
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: WHITE et al. v. GREENE et al.

114 A. 112

96 Conn. 265

WHITE et al. v. GREENE et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

June 1, 1921

Appeal from Superior Court, New Haven County; Donald T. Warner Judge.

Action by Wilmore H. White and others, as officers of the Rose of the Valley Lodge, No. 1, Knights of Pythias, and by the Lodge itself against Willis H. Greene and others, part of whom were officers of the Supreme Lodge. From an order granting an injunction, the defendants appeal. Error in part, and cause remanded, with directions to modify the injunction in accordance with the opinion.

Action by officers of Rose of the Valley Lodge, No. 1, of a fraternal benefit order known as the Knights of Pythias, and by the lodge itself as a voluntary association, against the Supreme Chancellor of the order, S.W. Green, of New Orleans La., its secretary, Edward E. Underwood, of Frankfort, Ky the secretary of its endowment department, W. S. Willis, of Waco, Tex., and certain resident members of the plaintiff lodge, to restrain them from attempting to organize a new lodge, and from transferring to the new organization the funds and property of the plaintiff lodge, and from doing and refusing to do other acts hereinafter more particularly referred to, brought to and tried before the superior court in New Haven county, Warner, J., who issued an injunction operative until the session of the order next after the determination of a certain appeal by the plaintiff lodge to the Supreme Lodge of the order. The nonresident defendants were not served with process otherwise than by mail, but they voluntarily appeared, and, without filing any plea to the jurisdiction, answered and defended. Error in part, and cause remanded.

Omitting facts unnecessary to the determination of this appeal, it appears of record that the plaintiff lodge has been operating as a subordinate lodge of the order of the Knights of Pythias under a charter issued directly by the Supreme Lodge, and on October 23, 1919, was possessed of certain property, including a fund over $1,200 out of which it was accustomed to pay sick and death benefits. It also paid dues to an endowment fund which is administered by the Supreme Lodge, and from which death benefits were payable to its members. The Supreme Lodge is the governing body and the court of last resort of the order. It is a migratory body meeting biennially, made up of representatives of subordinate lodges of the order, and its next session is to be held in Indianapolis, in August, 1921. When the Supreme Lodge is not in session, its executive powers are vested in the Supreme Chancellor, the defendant S.W. Green.

Prior to October 23, 1919, a factional controversy developed in the plaintiff lodge, which culminated in the suspension of the defendant Anderson from membership. After an investigation into the merits of the controversy by an officer of the order deputed for that purpose by the Supreme Chancellor, the latter ordered that Anderson be reinstated. The plaintiff lodge protested against this order, and refused to obey it, whereupon the Supreme Chancellor, on October 23, 1919, issued an order suspending Rose of the Valley Lodge, No. 1, from the supreme jurisdiction. From this order of suspension the plaintiff lodge appealed to the next session of the Supreme Lodge to be held at Indianapolis in August, 1921, and the trial court has made the following finding:

" Following this action certain members of the plaintiff lodge, including all of the resident defendants, met November 8, 1919, for the purpose of organizing a new lodge with the same name as the plaintiff lodge, and covering the same territory, and filed a petition with the defendant S.W. Green for a charter, which petition ostensibly had some 33 or 34 signers (30 being the requisite number), though it transpired that some 11 of the names were not written by the persons themselves. And these persons were by said S.W. Green recognized as Rose of the Valley Lodge, No. 1, at the time of the trial of this action. And said defendants took into their possession the books, records, and seal of the plaintiff lodge, and threatened to deprive said lodge of the same, and to use the same as their own. And said defendants threaten to assume the name of plaintiff lodge, and to be the only lodge of said order in said jurisdiction, and claim the funds, paraphernalia, and other property of said plaintiff lodge, and seek such recognition from said S.W. Green as a lodge of said order, and thereby and in other ways threaten to deprive the plaintiffs of all their rights in said order, and in the funds and property of the plaintiff lodge, and to deprive said plaintiff lodge of its funds and property, and of its right to the use of its name, and of its membership in said order."

This finding has not been questioned, except as to the use of the phrase " for the purpose of organizing a new lodge" ; it being the defendants' claim that the purpose was to " reinstate" the plaintiff lodge.

George W. Crawford, of New Haven, for appellants.

Harry G. Tolliver and Philip Pond, both of New Haven, for appellees.

BEACH J.

The complaint alleges that the order of the Supreme Chancellor suspending the plaintiff lodge from the Supreme jurisdiction was without right, and unlawful, but it does not expressly deny that the Supreme Chancellor had jurisdiction to issue such an order, and the finding and memorandum of decision of the trial court assumes that the issuance of the order was an act within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Chancellor. In accordance with this assumption, the injunction was not made permanent, but was expressed to remain in force until the next session of the court after the determination of the plaintiff's appeal to the Supreme Lodge, and the action was continued until that time for final...