James v. Fraternity of Home Protectors

Citations

• 54 Pa. Super. 375
• 1913 Pa. Super. LEXIS 72

Syllabus

<p>Beneficial associations — Payment of calls — Forfeitures of membership— Burden of proof.</p> <p>Where a beneficial association consists of a “Supreme Circle,” and “Subordinate Circles,” and the members pay regular monthly dues to the subordinate circles, and irregular assessments called at times by the Supreme Circle, the association, when sued for a death benefit, has upon it the burden of proof to show that the Supreme Circle had called an assessment which it was claimed the deceased member had not paid. Such burden of proof is not met by the production of loose typewritten sheets of paper purporting to be the minutes of the executive committee of the Supreme Circle, with the name of a former secretary affixed at the end by a rubber stamp, without any proof that the secretary named had ever used such a stamp, or that he had ever had one in his possession, or that the stamp resembled his signature, and without any evidence to show that it would have been impossible, or difficult, or even inconvenient to produce such secretary as a witness.</p>