45 So. 653 | Ala. | 1908
The only question presented for review on this appeal is the propriety of the action taken below in the dissolution, on the denials of the answer, of the temporary injunction issued. The bill is grounded upon a contest between complainants and respondents as to who were the officers de jure of Grand Lodge No. 23 of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows of America. Asserting their equál right to the several offices described in the bill and to the funds committed by the laws of the order to such officers, the complainants seek to invoke the powers of the court of equity to restrain the respondents, who are denounced as usurpers, from exercising the functions and performing the duties of
We are of the opinion that the exception described is not present in this cause. As indicated, the gist of the controversy is which set of officers is entitled to the positions, and, therefore, to the funds received, receivable, and to be disbursed under the rules and regulations of the order. Whether the one set or the other is finally found thus entitled, the only mischief, aside from the misappropriations of the funds charged on the one side and with explicit and full allegations denied on the other, to which the order will be subjected, is that always incidental to such factional contests as this is shown to be. The continuance of the injunction could not operate to induce harmony and allay strife under such circumstances, and the injury to the order consequential upon the existence of the state of hostility thus pervading almost the whole membership of the order in this state is, and must necessarily be, beyond the effect of any order or judgment of the civil courts. It cannot be assumed, in the face of the denials of the answer, that the. misconduct chaxyged agaixxst the respondents in the handling of
Affirmed.'
