Lippincott v. Supreme Council A. L. H.

Citations

• 130 F. 483
• 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4820

Syllabus

<p>1. Benefit Dife Insurance — Renunciation of Contracts — Right of Member to Rescind.</p> <p>A life insurance association renounced its contracts with its members, by adopting a by-law, without legal right, by which it attempted to arbitrarily reduce the amount payable on their certificates below the amount therein agreed to be paid, and by levying assessments thereunder on the reduced amount. A member, on receiving notice of the reduction, refused to assent thereto, and declared his intention of enforcing the contract as made. He tendered the assessments at the former rate, but, on their being refused, paid at the reduced rate for more than two years, but always under protest, and he then notified the association of his intention to rescind the contract, and demanded the return of the assessments he had paid before the reduction. Held, that while the payments made after the adoption of the by-law were voluntary, and could not be recovered back, they did not bind him as an acquiescence in the action taken, nor did his declaration of his intention to insist on performance constitute an irrevocable election which precluded him from afterwards rescinding the contract and recovering the payments previously made, where the association was not misled or prejudiced by the delay.</p>