Ellison v. District Grand Lodge No. 23
Ellison v. District Grand Lodge No. 23
Opinion of the Court
It is conceded, and set forth in the agreed statement of facts upon which the garnishment procedings were heard before the court sitting without a jury on. a contest of the garnishee’s answer, that the appellee (defendant in the original suit) is a fraternal
Tbe appellant had recovered a judgment against tbe defendant society, suing as a beneficiary under one of tbe policies issued by it and payable out of tbe general mortuary funds of tbe order. Tbe defendant bad deposited, in tbe garnished bank a certain sum to tbe credit of tbe “Independent Series Class B No. 1” of tbe order, to wbicb series or class tbe member on whose life the appellee held a beneficiary certificate, upon wbicb she bad recovered judgment, did not belong. Tbe question presented is tbe right of such a society to create in good faith separate “classes” and preserve to tbe members of a separate class so created tbe right to maintain a separate mortuary fund out of wbicb tbe contributing members of that particular class may be paid to tbe exclusion of members of another class, or those entitled to benefit or payment out of tbe general mortuary funds of tbe order.
That a society or order conducting its operations under tbe provisions of tbe act approved April 24, 1911, should have tbe right and be vested with authority to classify memberships into separate and independent classes and to issue policies or certificates to tbe several different classes, seems plainly from reading tbe act to have been tbe legislative intent. — -Acts 1911, p. 700 et seq., §§ 5, 6, 9, 23a.
Tbe organization having been authorized by law to classify its members, and tbe members joining tbe order having done so under a provision in tbe laws of tbe society making them subject to tbe laws of tbe association presently in force or that might thereafter be enacted, its members would be bound by a by-law of tbe associa
No question of the right of membership in this separate class, by transfer, or otherwise, is presented in this case, and that proposition is not considered.
The conclusion is that the society had the right to create the separate class of members, of which particular class the member on whose life the appellant held a beneficiary certificate Avas not a member, and to maintain for the benefit of that other class of members a separate mortuary fund not subject to garnishment in aid of the payment of the judgment obtained by the appellee against the association as the beneficiary in the certificate held by her. See Niblack on Benefit Societies and Accident Insurance (2d Ed.) p. 59; Hesinger v. Home Ben. Ass’n, 41 Minn. 516, 43 N. W. 481; Supreme Lodge v. Knight, 117 Ind. 489, 20 N. E. 479, 3 L. R. A. 409.
The rulings of the trial court were in harmony Avith the vieAvs expressed, and the judgment avüI be affirmed.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.