Lafferty v. Supreme Council Catholic Mutual Benefit Ass'n

Citations

• 259 Pa. 452
• 103 A. 280
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 433

Syllabus

<p>Beneficial associations — Insurance companies — Distinction—Bylaws of society — Death benefits — Failure to include by-laws in certificate — Evidence—Unauthorized, circular by officer — Acts of May 11, 1881, P. L. 20, and April 6, 1898, P. L. 7 — Case for jury.</p> <p>1. A controlling test as to whether an organization is a beneficial association or an insurance company is whether the organization comes within the definition of the Act of April 6, 1893, P. L. 7, which declares that a fraternal beneficial association is a corporation, society or voluntary association organized and carried on for the sole benefit of its members and their beneficiaries and not for profit, “and in which the payment of death benefits shall be to families, heirs, blood relatives, affianced husband or affianced wife of, or to persons dependent upon the member.”</p> <p>2. A society organized as a social institution with a provision for insurance not as a means of profit but in the exercise of a benevolent and fraternal purpose, and governed through a branch system with a form of initiation, requiring that an applicant can be admitted to membership only after investigation and report by the board of trustees of the branch, and a favorable ballot by the menabers present at a regular meeting, and requiring that the designation of beneficiaries be limited to relatives or dependents of the member, or to a charitable institution of which he may be an inmate, and stipulating that no member may belong to two branches of the association at the same time, is a beneficial association and not an insurance company.</p> <p>3. The Act of May 11, 1881, P. L. 20, providing that where an insurance policy refers to the constitution and by-laws of the insurer as forming part of the insurance contract, such constitution and by-laws shall not be admissible in evidence unless a copy thereof be attached to the policy, applies to insurance companies and not to beneficial associations.</p> <p>4. In an action agai