Knights of Pythias v. Kalinski

Citations

• 163 U.S. 289
• 16 S. Ct. 1047
• 41 L. Ed. 163
• 1896 U.S. LEXIS 2266

Syllabus

<p>A society extending throughout the country, which was divided into lodges, whose members were subject to an annual lodge assessment and had also the right to become members of a separate assessable organization, within the society, called the endowment fund, having had some differences with a member who had paid all his endowment assessments but was in arrear for his dues to his lodge, the supreme head, (called the board of control,) after careful consideration, decided that in view of the fact that the keeper of records and seals of the lodge to which he belonged failed to notify the section of which he was a member of the fact that he was in arrears for dues to his lodge and that the lodge had failed to suspend him in accordance with the law, and that his section of the endowment rank had received his monthly assessments up to the date of his death, the endowment rank was liable for the full amount of the endowment. Held, that while the courts are not bound by this construction of the organization, the association has no right to complain if its certificate holders act upon such interpretation, and is not in a position to claim that the ruling was more liberal than the facts of the case or a proper construction of the rules would warrant; and that whether the ruling was right or wrong it established a course of business on the part of the society, upon which its certificate holders had a right to rely.</p> <p>The continued receipt of assessments upon an endowment certificate up to the day of the holder’s death is, under the circumstances of this case, a waiver of any technical forfeiture by reason of non-payment of lodge dues.</p>