Wilber v. Supreme Lodge New England Order of Protection

• Decision Date: 21 June 1906
• Citation: 192 Mass. 477,78 N.E. 445
• Parties: WILBER et al. v. SUPREME LODGE OF NEW ENGLAND ORDER OF PROTECTION et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

192 Mass. 477

78 N.E. 445

WILBER et al. v. SUPREME LODGE OF NEW ENGLAND ORDER OF PROTECTION et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

June 21, 1906

COUNSEL

Jas F. Sweeney and Howard A. Wilson, for plaintiffs.

Alfd. S. Hayes and Alvah G. Sleeper, for claimant.

OPINION

HAMMOND J.

The question is whether the evidence warranted a finding that Lucy Cooper was 'dependent' upon George T. Wilber within the meaning of that word as used in St. 1882, p. 149 c. 195, § 2 (now Rev. Laws, c. 119, § 6).

She testified that prior to July 14, 1897, she and her two sisters Agnes and Georgianna were all keeping house together in Cambridge; that she and her sister Agnes worked out and earned the money necessary to maintain the home; that Georgianna who was not strong, did the housework; that all this was known to Wilber; and that on July 14, 1897, Agnes married him; that before the marriage Agnes said to Wilber that she would not marry and break up the home of herself and sisters, and that he said that if she would marry him, all the sisters should go with her and 'always have a home as long as he lived.'

She further testified that after the marriage the old home was broken up and they all went to live with Wilber; that the arrangement was that Agnes should 'run the house' and Georgianna would help her in the work, and she (the witness) should 'give in what she could'; that in pursuance of that arrangement Agnes and Georgianna kept the house while Wilber and the witness worked out and supported the family he contributing from $12 to $15 a week and she $4 a week, and sometimes more; that these sums were turned over to Agnes, who bought the food, paid the rent and 'ran the house on it,' and Wilber and Agnes 'had their clothes out of it.' In a word, they were all members of the same household, each contributing either by money or by work to the maintenance of the common home.

She further testified that, after the death of Agnes, Wilber said that 'we would go on Keeping house just the same as we did before my sister died, giving in together and keeping house,' and also that 'if we would keep on Keeping house for him, we might go on and live the same way we had been living.' She also testified that in pursuance of that arrangement the home was kept up as before until Wilber's death, Georgianna acting as treasurer.

There was also evidence that Wilber, after the death of Agnes, said to Lucy that he had made her one of the beneficiaries because his children (by a former marriage) all had good homes, and that if anything happened to her she had her sister Georgianna to look after and needed the money.

In McCarthy v. New England Order of...