75 Miss. 167 | Miss. | 1897
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is a contest between the Vicksburg Bank, as complainant, and Mary A. Carson, respondent and cross complainant, as to the application of the proceeds of a certificate of membership in section 34 of the endowment rank of the Knights of Pythias at Vicksburg, paid into court by the board of control of the supreme lodge of said order.
It further appears that the defendant corporation denied any knowledge of the purpose of Carson in changing the beneficiary from Mary Carson to Bruzelius, and there is no evidence that it had any notice or information of such purpose, though, perhaps, Maganus, the secretary of section thirty-four, endowment rank, had good reason to believe that it was done for the purpose of making Bruzelius the nominal beneficiary, and for the purpose of passing it to the John F. Halpin Company, as collateral security. The $3,000 endowment-was ready to be paid
In accordance with the act of congress, entitled ‘ ‘An act to provide for the creation of corporations in the District of Columbia by general law,” approved May 5, 1870, Jos. T. K. Plant, and six others, filed in the office of register of deeds, in the District of Columbia, a certificate of association, to incorporate themselves and their associates as a benefit society, under the name of ‘ ‘ The Supreme Lodge of the Knights of Pythias of the World.” The charter and constitution of said association is incorporated in the record of this case, and at the time Carson was admitted a member, that part of the constitution which is material to this case is set out below, but at the time of the death of Carson that part of it between brackets had been repealed and annulled.
“Aeticle XII. — Beneficiaries. Sec. 1. Each applicant for membership in the endowment rank shall designate in his application some person or persons related to, or dependent upon, him for support, as hereinafter provided, to whom the benefit shall be paid when due; and the name or names and the relationship of the person or persons so designated shall be inserted in the endowment certificate, except in case, when the endowment is made payable to wife and children, the names of the children may be omitted, and, in the event of such member’s death, all surviving children of deceased shall be considered legal beneficiaries; [Provided, That an applicant may name as beneficiary his betrothed, his subordinate lodge, his endowment rank, section or a brother knight. J The interest of any person so designated, or their heirs, shall cease and determine in case of his or her death during the lifetime of such member. Upon the death of a member of this rank, the benefit, as specified in the endowment certificate, shall be paid by the supreme secretary, by warrant on the endowment rank depositary, signed by the president of the board of control and attested by the supreme secretary, through the secretary of the section, to the
It is clear that Carson, in causing the endowment certificate to be made payable to Bruzelius, did so for the purpose of pledging it to John P. Halpin Company, as a security for the debt due it by him. The bill of the Vicksburg Bank charges this fact, the respondent and cross complainant, Mary Carson, admits it, and Bruzelius himself, at the final hearing, virtually admitted the same thing. If, therefore,' it was competent for Carson to dispose of his endowment certificate in that manner, the right of the bank to the fund is complete. It is settled that the right of a beneficiary of a benevolent society, like this of the Knights of Pythias, is inchoate, imperfect and ambulatory until the death of the member holding the endowment certificate; that such right is a mere expectancy, liable to be defeated by a change of appointment legally made. As Carson surrendered to the supreme lodge of the Knights of Pythias the endowment certificate, payable to his wife, Mary Carson, she can predicate no right to this fund of such surrendered certificate. It was canceled.
‘ It is obvious that, if the member holding the endowment certificate could validly transfer it to his creditor as a security for his debt, the policies of such societies, like those of regular insurance companies, would become, to some extent, the subject of trade and speculation, in contravention of the expressed policy of the law creating them, and in total subversion of the avowed objects of these associations.
It was taken for granted, in More v. Bennett, 140 Ill., 95, that the constitution and by-laws of an association constitute the contract between the society and its members. While the right of the beneficiary of a mutual benefit society of this kind is contingent during the life of the appointor or donor, yet, this imperfect and ambulatory right becomes a vested interest on his death. Does this vested right go to Bruzelius for himself beneficially, or to him as trustee for creditors, or as trustee for the widow and children? In our judgment the real
’Wherefore the decree rendered in the cov/rt below is reversed, the cause is remanded, with leave to Mary Carson to amend her answer and cross bill, and make the children of Carson parties, if there be any, and that the case proceed according to the principles announced in this opinion.