Adams v. Grand Lodge of the A. O. U. W.

Citations

• 105 Cal. 321
• 38 P. 914
• 1894 Cal. LEXIS 1157

Syllabus

<p>Mutual Benefit Association—Rights of Beneficiaries—Interpleader —Equity.—Where a mutual benefit association is not an aggressive party, standing strictly upon its legal rights, but has paid money into court, in respect of which rival beneficiaries have interpleaded, the rights of the beneficiaries as between themselves must be determined upon principles of equity.</p> <p>Id.—Litigation Over Fund in Court—Principles of Adjudication— Source of Title not Material.—Where a fund has been paid into court by a mutual benefit association, in respect of which the plaintiff and an intervenor both claimed title, their respective claims of ownership are to be litigated in the same way, and finally adjudicated and determined upon the same general principles as though the common source of title of the money came through a bequest or gift.</p> <p>Id.—Change of Beneficiary—Trust—Death of Trustee.—Where the insured in a mutual benefit association had named his wife as the original beneficiary in the certificate of membership, and afterwards changed the certificate to the name of a member of a firm to which he was indebted in a large sum of money, who took in trust for the firm, with the knowledge and consent of the mutual benefit association, upon the death of the trustee prior to the death of the insured, the wife cannot claim the proceeds of the certificate as against the firm for whose benefit it was held by the deceased trustee.</p> <p>Id.—Equities of Real Beneficiaries as Against Trustee.—In the eyes of a court of equity the firm for whose benefit the certificate was issued in the name of one of its members was the real beneficiary, and the death of the trustee could not affect the rights of the real beneficiary living at the death of the insured, and it is the duty of the court to protect such beneficiary.</p> <p>Id.—Certificate Irregularly Issued—Waiver of Rules.—The fact that a certificate was irregularly issued to a beneficiary, by reason of noncompliance with the rules