71 Md. 263 | Md. | 1889
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This suit was instituted by the appellee as plaintiff to recover upon a contract of insurance effected by one Thomas H. Evans upon his own life, for the sum of three thousand dollars, for the benefit of the plaintiff. The insured, Thomas H. Evans, was a charter member of Reliance Council, Ho. 1069, of “American Legion of Honor,” which was organized in December, 1882; and as such member he had taken out a certificate insuring his life for the benefit of the plaintiff in this suit, who is named in the application as “Elizabeth A. Green, my niece.” The appellant is a corporation chartered under the laws of Massachusetts, which are found in the Revised Statutes of that State, ch. 115, and section 8, as amended by the Act of 1882, ch. 195, contains the provisions under which this controversy arises.
That section reads as follows: “A corporation, organized for any purpose mentioned in section two, may, for the purpose of assisting the widows, orphans or other relations of deceased members, or any persons dependent upon deceased members, provide in its by-laws for the payment by each member of a fixed sum, to be held by such association until the death of a member occurs, and then to be forthwith paid to the person or persons entitled thereto, and such fund so held shall not be liable to attachment by trustee or other process; and associations may be formed 'under this chapter for the purpose of rendering assistance to such persons in the maimer herein specified.”
In the 5th section of Article 2 of the Constitution of the Supreme Council of the Legion of Honor the object of the order, so far as it affects this case, is declared to be “To establish a benefit fund, from which, on satisfactory evidence of the death of a beneficial member of the
The payment of this insurance money, (the insured having died), is resisted by the appellant upon the contention that the appellee does not belong to the classes or any one of them whom the corporation designed to assist or benefit;" or which the statute of Massachusetts authorized to be provided for. It is also resisted on the ground that in his application for membership and insurance, the insured described the plaintiff (the beneficiary) as “my niece,” whereas she was not his niece, and was in no degree related to him. This representation being untrire, it is .contended, that, under a subsequent clause of the application, there was a forfeiture of rights under the contract. That clause is as follows: “I do hereby consent and agree that any untrue or fraudulent statement made above, or. to the medical examiner, or any concealment of facts in this application, or my suspension or expulsion from, or voluntarily severing my connection with, the order, shall forfeit the rights of myself and my family of dependents to all privileges therein.”
What the statute of Massachusetts authorizes to be done under it has been settled by the decisions of Massachusetts’ Courts, and those decisions are controlling as to the effect and meaning of the statute, and we should follow them as making a part of the law of the State, no matter whether they are entirely in harmony with decisions of other States upon somewhat similar statutes or not. In American Legion of Honor vs. Perry, 140 Mass., 589, it was most distinctly decided that the classes of persons intended to be benefited by the statute are plainly and expressly designated in the statute, and that no person not falling within that designation could be provided for by any corporation holding its charter under
Two cases only have been cited as maintaining a contrary view, and establishing that an incorrect statement of relationship will not avoid the contract; but a careful examination of those cases discloses such material differ
The other case relied on by appellee’s counsel is Durian vs. The Central Verein of the Hermann’s Soehnne, 7 Daly, 168. This was a case in the Court of Common
A person was named as wife, who was not such in fact. The Court held that the. person who was intended to take was plainly designated by name, and that this was enough to entitle her to recover. The real question in that case was whether the applicant in this case could designate any one but a toife as beneficiary. At the time he joined his wife’s name was registered according to the rules of the society, and she contended that her right was vested and could not be divested by any change in the constitution of the society and subsequent change of designation by the husband. Real husband and wife were living apart, and the husband designated another woman with whom he was living, and who adopted his name and passed as his lawful wife till his death. This adopted wife was allowed to recover to the exclusion of the wife who was originally named as beneficiary, or to be more exact, who had been originally registered as his wife under the rules of the company. The decision turned on the right to designate the jaerson named as beneficiary, and the person being designated clearly, the designation of her as “wife,” when she |>assed as such, but was not so, was held not to disentitle her. The relationship of the parties in that case had no bearing on the rights of either. Any body could be beneficiary.
It is contended, however, that the appellant is estopped from saying the appellee is not the niece of the deceased because Dr. Pennington, who witnessed the application of the deceased, knew, or had heard, she was not his niece. His testimony on this subject is embodied in the first and second bills of exception.
Dr. Pennington was Grand Secretary of the Grand Council of the American Legion of Honor, and as such officer, was present at the institution of this subordinate council, of which the deceased was a charter member. He witnessed signatures, he says, of Evans to the application and obligation, though the record does not show that he attested anything but the subscription of the obligation. Reliance Council not having been then organized, there was no secretary elected and acting for it, and he performed certain duties which such secretary would have performed liad there been one. He says it was his duty to see that the blanks were filled, but that it was not his duty to see hoto they were filled, or “to pass on the propriely of the filling.” He says he usually cast his eye over them to see if they were properly filled, and presumes he did so in this case, though he has no recollection whether he did or not. He says he had heard, before that time, that the appellee was not the niece of Evans, but he had no personal knowledge on the subject, and does not recollect having paid any attention to the statement in the application that she was his niece ; and he does not know that he would "have called attention to it had he noticed it, as he had no personal knowledge on the subject. He further says, it was no-part of his duly to pass on the capacity of the beneficiary. He further says he was not and never had been “an officer of the ¡Supreme Council of American Legion of Honor, but might be considered its agent in organizing Beliance
Upon this testimony, and careful examination of the constitution and laws of the order, in hoth its branches, we can not find any ground for holding Dr. Pennington was such agent of the Supreme Council as to affect it, through him,' with notice of a fact which Dr. Pennington had only heard of incidentally, and long before, and of the truth or falsity of which he had no personal knowledge.
In the first place, the Grand .Council of which he was secretary had nothing to do with the benefit fund. His statement to that effect is fully borne out by the constitution and laAvs of the order. In the second place he was not, by any law charged with the duty of instituting new councils or receiving applications for membership ; still, in this case, by somebody’s authority or permission, he did institute Reliance Council, and his action was accepted as regular and lawful and the council proceeded to work. Whilst it was his duty to receive the applications of charter members for transmission to the Supreme Lodge or Council, and to see that they were in proper form and with blanks all filled up, he says it was not his duty to examine into or pass upon the qualification of any beneficiary who might be named in the application. It was subject of change and needed no special looking after-. He was only to see that they were all prepared to, ballot among themselves, whether they would associate with one' another as members. As instituting officer, Dr. Pennington received Evans and his application. His duty at most was that of a special instituting officer. Section 4 of Law Y, defines the duty of the instituting officer : “It shall he the duty of the instituting officer to see that the medical examiner is legally qualified, (by making application to supreme commander who
Entertaining this view it follows that there was error in admitting the testimony excepted to in the first and second exceptions, and in rejecting the appellant’s first prayer. It also follows that there was error in granting all the plaintiff’s prayers. We understand from the proof and concessions that the appellee was not the niece or relative of the insured, and under our ruling we see no occasion to order a new trial. We shall therefore reverse, without ordering a new trial.
Judgment reversed.