Hagar v. Grand Lodge of Ancient Order of United Workmen

Citations

• 96 Kan. 221
• 150 P. 528
• 1915 Kan. LEXIS 352

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1'. Fraternal Insurance — A. O. U. W. — Two Certificates to Same Member — Separate Beneficiaries■ — Each Can Not Recover Full Amount of Certificate. A fraternal society issued to one of its members an insurance certificate for $2000, naming the plaintiff as beneficiary. Later, at the request of the member, it issued another certificate naming another beneficiary. On the death of the member the plaintiff sued to recover on the first certificate and impleaded the beneficiary under the second certificate. The second beneficiary answered and filed a cross-petition setting up the beneficiary certificate in her favor. The defendant society paid the sum of $2000 into court, admitting ' that it owed somebody that amount. The court gave judgment in favor of plaintiff for $2000, and judgment in favor of the cross-petitioner for $2000. An examination of the pleadings shows that both beneficiaries were claimants for the same fund and their issues were framed on that hypothesis, and it was error to award judgment on both certificates.</p> <p>2. Same — Rival Claimants to Same Fund — Equitable Division. When the conflicting rights and equities of two claimants to a fund render it impossible to give all the fund to one claimant without doing gross injustice to the other, the district court has power in the exercise of its sound discretion to make an equitable division between them.</p>