Thomas v. Leake

Citations

• 67 Tex. 469
• 3 S.W. 703
• 1887 Tex. LEXIS 909

Syllabus

<p>1. Benefit Certificate.—As a general rule when a benefit certificate issues from a benefit society, the designation on the face of the certificate as to who shall be the beneficiary is conclusive on that subject.</p> <p>2. Same—Who Are Beneficiaries.—A widower having four children applied to a Benevolent Association for membership, and in his application directed that in case of his death all benefits should be paid to his four children, whose names were given. He afterwards married and died, leaving one child by his last wife. The certificate that issued to him recited that the sum which would be due at his death should be paid “ to his children.” The object of the society was to establish a benevolent relief fund to protect families of deceased members, and to assist them in distress, and by the terms of its constitution the benefit money on the death of a member was payable “to his family or his heirs;” held:</p> <p>(1) The right to take under the certificate must be determined by its language, and not from the terms used in the application for member ship.</p> <p>(2) The certificate which on its face inured to the benefit of his heirs, extended the scope of the benefit, and by accepting it the member must be held to have approved its terms.</p> <p>(3) The object of the society being benevolent, its consent that the benefit should exclude an infant born after membership, can not result from construction, but must appear in some clear and explicit way.</p> <p>(4) The child born after the issuance of the benefit certificate was entitled to share in the benefit, equally with each of the four children named in the application.</p>