Odd Fellows Benefit Ass'n v. Ivy

Citations

• 105 Miss. 423
• 62 So. 423

Syllabus

<p>1. Insurance. Mutual benefit insurance. Effect of expulsion.</p> <p>Where it is shown by the evidence in an action on a policy in a mutual benefit association that the. member whose life was insured had been suspended or expelled from the order before her death, that she made no effort, by appeal or otherwise, to be reinstated, and that when she died she was not in good standing and the law of the order clearly provides that in such case a member shall forfeit his rights of membership in the association and that the payment of a benefit certificate shall thereby be avoided and that the proceedings of the lodge in expelling the member were regular and according to the rules of the order, there could be no recovery and the courts will not interfere with the action of the ’order in expelling the member or declare such order ineffective.</p> <p>2. Same.</p> <p>The decisions of a mutual benefit order in admitting members, and in deseiplining, suspending or expelling them, are of a quasi-judicial nature, with which the courts will not ordinarily interfere, except, in connection with property rights, to ascertain whether the proceeding was pursuant to the rules and laws of the order, and in good faith, and whether there was anything in the proceeding in violation of the laws of the land. Especially is this so, where the question is sought to be raised collaterally in an action for the recovery of benefits.</p> <p>3. Mutual Benefit Insurance. Forfeiture. Waiver or estoppel.</p> <p>While in some cases an insurance company may, by the receipt of premiums or assessments, waive the breach of conditions of the policy and be estopped from alleging such breach as a ground of forfeiture thereof, yet where the member insured in a mutual benefit association was legally suspended, and not in good standing in the lodge and this was known by the beneficiary in the policy and by third parties who made the payments and by the grand secretary and treasurer of the order, there is no such