Neel v. Heralds of Liberty
Neel v. Heralds of Liberty
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The plaintiff’s action rests on a certificate issued by the defendant, a beneficial association. Once before he brought an action in the same court, who tried the case at bar, and it was there determined he exhibited no right to recover. A compulsory nonsuit was entered which the court en banc refused to lift. An appeal to this court followed and certainly most of the important questions indicated were then disposed of in a convincing opinion by our Brother Porter, 71 Pa. Superior Ct. 136.
We start then with the proposition that the claimant was in default. It is true he had, under the by-laws, a tempus penitentiae, but his privilege rested on the condition that he should have himself reexamined as to his physical fitness. This he did not do and the opinion of 'Judge Porter seems to be conclusive on that point.
When he brought his action, as he did in the common pleas, to recover what was due to him on account of these two certificates, Nos. 633 and 634, he claimed every penny of it without deduction to protect any other certificates he might have and he recovered a judgment for every cent of the money represented by. those two certificates with interest thereon. The judgment thus recovered was paid in full. How th,en, may the plaintiff claim here that, although he sued for everything that was rightfully due by those two certificates, without diminution for any purpose, and recovered a judgment following his claim without defense by the company, the money which is now in his pocket, should have been taken away from him without his consent, approval or knowledge and applied by his debtor to keep alive other certificates he had the option to permit to lapse?
The counsel for the appellant insists that something new, radically new, has been injected into this case as distinguished from the former one, because he has offered in evidence the plaintiff’s original application. It is true that, in that application, the plaintiff says he
The judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.