202 N.W. 341 | Minn. | 1925
Lead Opinion
In his application for a certificate of insurance, Ed. F. Mooney agreed that "any beneficiary certificate based upon this application shall be held to be a contract made in the State of Illinois and subject to its laws." A certificate was issued on March 4, 1899, upon the express condition "that the said Ed. F. Mooney shall comply with the constitution, by-laws, rules and regulations, now in force or which may hereafter be adopted" by defendant. In November, 1908, plaintiff received her last letter from her husband. He then disappeared, and has since not been heard from. Defendant concedes the evidence such as to warrant the jury's finding that Mooney was dead. In 1901 the constitution was amended so that certificates were to be deemed made under and to be construed in accordance with the laws of the state in which the Grand Lodge has its headquarters. In 1913 the constitution was again amended by adding this provision: "No liability arising from the disappearance or the presumption of the death of a member arising from any such disappearance shall be incurred by the Brotherhood. Said Brotherhood shall only be liable for the payment of a death claim when there is positive proof of the actual death of a beneficiary member as previously provided in this section."
Defendant contends that the insurance contract is governed by the laws of Ohio, to which state it claimed the Grand Lodge has *129
been moved. We find no evidence in the record that such is the fact. But that is not important under defendant's theory of the case, for the Illinois courts follow those of Ohio holding valid and applicable to pre-existing contracts of insurance the above quoted amendment to the constitution of defendant, adopted in 1913. Steen v. Modern Woodmen,
However, we are unable to differentiate this case from Boynton v. Modern Woodmen,
But defendant contends the refusal to follow the decision of the Illinois court is to fail to give full faith and credit to the judicial proceedings of that court as required by art. 4, § 1, of the Federal Constitution. Royal Arcanum v. Green,
The plaintiff, the beneficiary, has always resided in this state. She paid dues subsequent to Mooney's disappearance until September, 1922, when she testified the last payment was refused and returned to her. Some contention is made, though not stressed, that proofs of death have not been furnished. Defendant denied liability, under circumstances showing it knew the impossibility for plaintiff to ever furnish proof of loss otherwise than in a lawsuit by establishing disappearance for such length of time that a jury could find her husband dead. This amounted to a waiver of the proofs of death called for by the contract.
The judgment is affirmed. *131
On July 24, 1925, the following opinion was filed:
Addendum
Since our decision of this case, the Supreme Court of the United States has filed its opinion in Modern Woodmen of America v. Mixer,
The by-law sustained in the Mixer case was in purpose and effect identical in nature with that involved here and was adopted after the making of the insurance contract upon which recovery was sought. The by-law had been sustained in Illinois and it was held that the same effect must be given to it by the courts of Nebraska. In consequence, the decision of the supreme court of that state (
"The act of becoming a member, (of a fraternal beneficiary association), is something more than a contract, — it is entering into a complex and abiding relation, — and as marriage looks to domicil, membership looks to and must be governed by the law of the state granting the incorporation. We need not consider what other states may refuse to do, but we deem it established that they cannot attach to membership rights against the company that are refused by the law of the domicil. It does not matter that the member joined in another state."
True, the particular by-law now involved has not been confirmed by a favorable decision concerning it. It has not been the subject of a test case such as that discussed in Royal Arcanum v. Green,
That is so because defendant is governed by an Illinois charter, which with the "laws of the state under which it was granted" is "the test and measure to be applied." As was said further by Mr. Chief Justice White in the Green case, the thing to which full faith and credit must be given is the "charter of the corporation," granted by its home state. Reference must be had "to the laws of that state to determine the powers of the corporation and the rights and duties of its members." In that connection, it will not do to ignore the "significance" of the charter and the applicable local law as declared by the supreme judicial tribunal of the domiciliary state.
Here it is clear, without any decision of the Illinois court on this particular by-law, that it would be upheld there. So we must abide by that view, and cheerfully do so.
Judgment reversed.