59 Mo. App. 20 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1894
Anton Hoffmeyer was a member of a benevolent association, known as the Catholic Knights of America. The association was incorporated in the state of Kentucky, and one of its objects, as set forth in its charter, was to create and keep up a fund out of which a sum not exceeding $2,000 should be paid, upon the death of a member, to his family or to others in accordance with his directions. The association had subordinate lodges in the state of Missouri, and Hoffmeyer became a member of one of these lodges while he was still a single man. He afterwards intermarried with Anna Hoffmeyer, who is one of the appellants herein. It does not appear from anything in the record that the subordinate lodge had any power whatever to change, modify or alter, any of the provisions of the charter of the parent lodge, or enter into contracts of insurance with other restrictions than those imposed by the charter of the corporation. The constitution of this subordinate lodge contained the the following provision, among others: “Section 7. Every member receives a benefit certificate upon his admission into the order. Each member may in his application for membership designate the name or names of such member or members of his family to whom he wishes the benefits paid, and they will be inserted into the benefit certificate accordingly.”
When Hoffmeyer became a member of the subordinate lodge, and incidentally of the corporation, he
The defendants, appealing, now assign for error that under the. evidence the court should have decided that the fund was- payable to Anna Hoffmeyer, and not to the plaintiffs. This contention is based upon the fact that benevolent associations incorporated under the laws of this state are confined to provisions “for the relief and aid of their members and families, widows, orphans and other kindred, dependents, of deceased members,” and that the brothers of the deceased do not fall within this class. The argument is also made that section 7 of the constitution of the locál lodge impliedly excludes from the benefit of the certificate all but members of the family of the assured.
These arguments are untenable for the following reasons: The corporation is a Kentucky corporation, and it nowhere appears that, by the laws of Kentucky, corporations of this character are not authorized to make benefit certificates payable upon the member’s death to any beneficiary he may designate’, regardless of the question of dependence. Such a contract is neither against good morals nor prohibited by any statute of
No question has been raised, either in the trial court or here, as to the propriety of the plaintiffs suing jointly, nor as to the validity of the small bequest made to the third plaintiff; hence we refrain from discussing those questions.
The judgement is affirmed.