186 Iowa 374 | Iowa | 1918
The facts relied upon by plaintiff to establish the allegations of her reply are the payment of one full assessment at the time of the member’s initiation; that, some time during the month of January, plaintiff, by telephone, requested the recorder of the subordinate lodge to pay the member’s dues for January; that the recorder promised to do so, and, on the 11th day of February, at a monthly meeting of the subordinate lodge, which was after the time allowed for the payment thereof, there was appropriated out of the funds of the lodge the necessary amount to pay the January assessment, and same was then paid; that, some time in March, and after a letter had been written to the member by the grand recorder, notifying him of his suspension from membership, and requesting him to apply for reinstatement under the rules and provisions of the order, she again called the recorder by telephone, and offered to pay assessments then due, but was informed by him that, as her mother, who was named as beneficiary in the certificate, had died, no further assessments could be received until a new beneficiary was named.
It was stipulated by counsel upon the trial that, at the time Malone made application for membership, which was in March or April, 1910, he paid a sum equal to one full monthly assessment, which was placed in the benefit fund, and that he paid all of his assessments and dues for each and every month as they matured and became due,
It is true that plaintiff did not tender the exact change to the recorder, but this was unnecessary. Defendant was, at the time, claiming a forfeiture of the certificate of membership, and insisting upon the production of a health certificate before reinstatement. Nothing could have been gained by making a further tender. Plaintiff was given to
III. As the judgment of the lower court must be reversed, and the case remanded for a new trial, we do not adjudicate plaintiff’s claim of waiver and estoppel, based upon the transaction of March 25th. For the reasons indicated, the judgment of the court below must be, and is,— Reversed.