Cupryk v. Ruthenian National Union

Citations

• 66 Pa. Super. 595
• 1917 Pa. Super. LEXIS 324

Syllabus

<p>Beneficial associations — Benefits on death of wife — Age of wife— Application — Evidence.</p> <p>Where the by-laws of a beneficial association provide that a member shall receive an amount stated upon the death of his wife, provided the wife was under forty years of age when the member joined the association, and a member in a suit for such benefits testifies that his wife was under forty years of age when he joined the association, it is reversible error to refuse to admit in evidence his application for membership wherein he stated that his wife at the time was forty-three years of age; and it is also reversible error to refuse to admit evidence as to an oral admission made by the member at the time he signed the application that his wife was over forty. . • '</p> <p>In such a case it is reversible error to exclude an application made by the wife for her own membership in the association made contemporaneously with her husband’s application in which she jstated that she was forty-three years of age. Such evidence is competent not only to contradict the husband’s testimony, but also as proof of the substantive fact of the age.</p> <p>It is not necessary to offer birth .records, or the evidence of persons who .could testify from actual knowledge from childhood to death to prove age. If this evidence can be secured, it should be produced, but evidence of general repute in the family by those competent will be sufficient if family records are not obtainable.</p>