241 Pa. 429 | Pa. | 1913
Opinion by
It is the settled rule of our cases that a certificate of membership of a beneficial association is not an insurance policy within the meaning of the Act of 1881, so as to make its by-laws inadmissible in evidence although not attached to the certificate: Beatty v. Supreme Commandery, 154 Pa. 484; Dickinson v. A. O. U. W., 159 Pa. 258; Lithgow v. Maccabees, 165 Pa. 292. It is the contention of appellee that these cases rule the one at bar, and it must be conceded that if the certificate sued on is that of a purely beneficial association, and not a contract of insurance, this position would be unanswerable. But this is the pinch of the case. If the certificate of membership was in effect a policy of life insurance which upon its face contained no provision, stipulation or condition as to suicide, the policy will not, if the insured commits suicide, be avoided as against the wife of the insured, who was named as beneficiary: Morris v. Mutual Assurance Co., 183 Pa. 563. The first question for decision here is whether the contract in question
On the other hand, as we read the decisions from other states, the overwhelming weight of authority is to the effect that the character of the business done by a so-called beneficial association is to be determined by the laws of each state in which it transacts business, and not by the laws of the state of its domicile. To this effect see: State v. Mutual Aid Association, 35 Kans. 51; MacDonald v. Baikers Life Association, 154 Mo. 618; Dolan v. Supreme Council, 113 N. W. Rep. 10, (Mich.); Coverdale v. Royal Arcanum, 61 N. E. Rep. 915, (Ill.); Pringle v. Woodmen of America, 127 N. W. Rep. 876, (Neb.); Green v. Royal Arcanum, 124 N. Y. Suppl. 398. An examination of those cases which held
The law looks to the substance rather than to the form, and is not to be cheated by any gloss of words, The declared objects of the order may have been Jacob’s
Without pursuing the discussion further, it only need be said that we regard the business transacted by the defendant order in Pennsylvania as that of life insurance, and hence failure to attach the by-laws to the certificate defeats the right of the order to set up the defense of suicide, or any other defense not stipulated in the certificate sued on. This is the legal effect of the Act of 1881.
Judgment reversed and is here entered for plaintiff on the verdict.