Worley v. Supreme Lodge Royal Achates
| Decision Date | 15 February 1911 |
| Docket Number | 16,298 |
| Citation | 129 N.W. 984,88 Neb. 440 |
| Parties | ELIZA B. WORLEY, APPELLEE, v. SUPREME LODGE ROYAL ACHATES, APPELLANT |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
APPEAL from the district court for Douglas county: GEORGE A. DAY JUDGE. Affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
A. H Burnett, for appellant.
Weaver & Giller, contra.
This is an appeal from a judgment upon a fraternal beneficiary certificate in favor of the plaintiff who was the beneficiary named therein. The contract is admitted and forfeiture is relied upon as a defense.
Dr. H. A. Worley, the assured, was a practicing physician, resident in Omaha. He became a member of the defendant association in July, 1901. Assessments for benefits were made monthly, and during the membership of the doctor assessments 13 to 88, inclusive, became due and payable. The supreme lodge has its headquarters in Omaha; Irving G. Baright is its supreme president, and Miss E. L. Grinnell is its supreme secretary. They have occupied these positions ever since the organization of the association. Dr. Worley was a member of Omaha Lodge No. 1. The evidence shows that it was customary for the secretary of this lodge to have a desk in the office of the supreme lodge, and also to be employed by the officers of the supreme lodge to procure new members and to collect delinquent assessments, being paid by the supreme lodge an additional compensation to that to which he was entitled as secretary of the local lodge. This collector usually called at the office of Dr. Worley each month for the past due assessment. On one occasion the doctor sent Mr. Dopson, who worked in his office, to the office of the supreme lodge with the assessment then payable. Dopson was then told by the supreme president that he need not bring the assessments, but that a collector would be sent for them each month. This conversation was repeated to Dr. Worley. Assessments were payable on the first day of each month, but were not delinquent until the first of the following month. It was the custom of Dr. Worley to pay his assessments to the collector after they became delinquent, and no questions were asked and no certificate of health was ever required by him.
The record, however, shows a certificate of health signed by the doctor and witnessed by the supreme president in 1904, at a time when he had been delinquent for two months. How this came to be made is unexplained save by the inference that the payment being two months past due a certificate of health was required. The evidence of the supreme secretary shows that the payment of a delinquent assessment was considered by the supreme lodge ipso facto as an application for reinstatement. The supreme lodge meets once in four years, and in the interval between its meetings the affairs of the society are managed and conducted by the executive officers. It is the duty of the supreme executive board, which consists of the supreme president, supreme vice-president, supreme past president, supreme secretary, and supreme chaplain, to pass upon applications for reinstatement. A majority of the board constitutes a quorum. This board seldom met, and it is shown that the supreme secretary and one other member would usually meet once a month, and without certificates of health or other data or information than the report of payment by the delinquent would reinstate all delinquent members, and that occasionally, sometimes after four or five months had elapsed, when a quorum was present, a formal entry would be made ratifying the reinstatements made by the secretary, but that when the ratification was had no health certificates or further information was before the board.
Dr Worley contracted a cold November 13, was able to be up and attend to patients at his house for about a week, but became worse and died on December 8, 1907. Mr. Clark, who occupied a room adjoining Dr. Worley's office, testified that about the 12th or 15th of November, 1907, Mr. Hopkins, secretary of the local lodge, who...
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