103 Mo. App. 694 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1903
(after stating the facts as above).— The agreed statement and testimony offered established that Michael Tierney died on the nineteenth of May, 1901, bequeathing to his wife, Margaret, in effect all his estate, except $20 devised to his parents; subsequently, November 8th, his widow died, devising her estate to her brother and sister. When Tierney first became a member of the relief association, he constituted his wife, the beneficiary, to whom the benefits should be paid upon his decease, by writing her name in the record book entitled, “Death Benefit Record,” under the column “Beneficiaries,” and no other formal designation was ever made by him. When he again became a member of the association, in April, 1900, the name of his wife continued as his designated beneficiary under the original appointment. The testimony introduced tended to establish by the custodian of the “Beneficiary Record,” that section 5, prescribing that an applicant for membership should call at the office on the third day after admission, and designate the disposition desired of the death benefit, was not rigidly insisted upon nor inflexibly enforced, but a member was permitted to make such designation at any subsequent date. The secretary of plaintiff tes
The law is well settled that in cases of this description, the beneficiary has no vested interest in the benefit certificate, until the death of the member of the organization, and termination of the life insured. The respondents had no more than mere expectancies in the mortuary benefits, until the decease of Tierney: until which occurrence, he was at liberty to change the beneficiary at will. Supreme, etc., v. Neidlet, 81 Mo. App. 598; Supreme, etc., v. Cappella, 41 Fed. 1. In the language of this court, ‘ ‘ The interest of a beneficiary in the certificate upon the life of a member of a fraternal beneficial association is a mere expectancy before the death of the member', after which event it becomes vested. It is a corollary of these propositions that anterior to the death of a member, the association, for whose benefit alone the* rules governing changes of beneficiaries are made, may waive compliance with any such rules on the .part of their members, and thus validate attempts to change beneficiaries which would be ineffectual under the strict rules of the order. ’ ’ Grand Lodge v. Reneau, 75 Mo. App. 402. As a general rule the regulations of the association respecting a change of beneficiary should be followed, but well established exceptions to literal compliance exist, as where the society waives a strict observance of its own rules; where it is beyond