Knox v. Catholic Women's Benevolent Legion

Citations

• 69 Pa. Super. 426
• 1918 Pa. Super. LEXIS 100

Syllabus

<p>Beneficial associations — Age of member — Record of baptism— Evidence.</p> <p>. Where in an action against a beneficial association for death benefits it is claimed, that the member was beyond fifty years, the limit of the age set by the by-laws, and it appears that in her application she stated that she was baptized in a church designated, in a year stated, and she also gives in her application her father’s name and her mother’s maiden name, and there is in evidence the record of such church showing that five years earlier there was a record of a baptism of a child of the same name as the member, with parents háving the same names as the persons designated in the application, the question of the identity of the member with the person named in the baptismal record, is for the jury.</p> <p>In such a ease it is not error for the court to charge as follows: “It is also possible that five years later there could have been another Bridget christened in that family; that is altogether possible; in five years’ time one child could have died and another one born, so you see that in the absence of other evidence - it affords a mere presumption of identity of person. That happened perhaps more than once that one year a child is born, named and christened and its life may be short and it dies and later on some other child comes and for reasons that are perfectly natural, the second child is given same name.”</p>