Covenant Mutual Benefit Ass'n v. Sears

Citations

• 114 Ill. 108
• 29 N.E. 480

Syllabus

<p>1. Insurance — mutual benefit association—contract construed as to payee or beneficiary. A mutual benefit association, the charter and by-laws of which declared its object and business should be to afford financial aid and assistance to the widow, orphans, heirs or devisees of .deceased members, issued .a certificate of membership to a member, which provided that upon proof of his death, he having complied with its conditions, an assessment should be levied upon the surviving members to the amount of the certificate, ($5000,) which “sum so collected on such assessments (less expenses and collection costs) the association hereby agrees well and truly to pay, or cause to be paid, as a benefit to his devisees, as provided in last will and testament; or in the event of their prior death, to the legal heir or devisees of the certificate-holder:” Held, that the promise was, in substance, to pay to his devisees if there should be devisees to take, and if not, then to pay to his heirs, and that they might recover on the same.</p> <p>2. Chancery—jurisdiction to enforce payment of benefits promied. A mutual benefit association, a corporation not organized for pecuniary profit, having no surplus, and relying entirely upon mortuary assessments made upon each death of a member for the payment of benefits to the beneficiaries of decedent, gave a certificate of membership to a member, in the sum of $5000, whereby it promised, upon proof of his death, that an assessment should be levied upon the surviving members to the amount of the certificate, which sum, when collected, less the expenses and collection costs, it would pay to his devisees, in. case he left any, and if he left none, to his legal heirs. It was held, that a court of chancery might properly take jurisdiction of a bill brought by the heirs of the deceased member to enforce payment of the certificate, by compelling a specific performance of the contract.</p>