Benton v. Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen

Citations

• 146 Ill. 570
• 34 N.E. 939

Syllabus

<p>1. Benefit society—interest of beneficiary in certificate during member’s life. The person designated in or by the certificate of membership of the assured, during the lifetime of the latter, has no vested interest in the certificate or the money that may become payable thereunder. The position and rightspf the beneficiary become vested at the death of the assured.</p> <p>2. Same—laws of, to be construed prospectively. The laws and rules of a benefit society should be subject to the same course of construction that is applied to statutes. They both should be so construed as to give them a prospective operation, and they should be allowed to operate retrospectively only when the intention to give them such operation is clear and undoubted.</p> <p>3. The holder of a certificate of insurance issued by a mutual benefit society in accordance with its terms and the laws of'the society, made his mother the payee or beneficiary, by assignment to her. After this, and shortly before the member’s death, the constitution of the order was amended to read as follows: “When marriage is contracted after the issuance of a policy, and said policy becomes payable through death, it shall be paid to the widow, * * * unless otherwise ordered.” The member married before his death and left a widow, but made no change in the assignment to his mother: Held, that the insurance money was payable to the mother, and not to the widow of the deceased member.</p>