Wegener v. Wegener

Citations

• 101 Ohio St. (N.S.) 22

Syllabus

<p>Policemen’s Benevolent Associations — Section 3630, Revised Statutes — Classes of beneficiaries authorised — Statute, articles of incorporation and by-laws or constitution — •Right to enlarge or restrict classes• — Payment of benefits — Brother of decedent not member of family, when.</p> <p>1. The law in force (Section 3630, Revised Statutes), under which the Policemen’s Benevolent Association was incorporated, authorized such association to pay benefit funds levied by assessment upon its members to the “families or heirs” of the association’s members. Although such association could not, by its articles of incorporation, extend the classes named in the statute, it could thereby limit the class to whom its benevolence should be paid and provide, in its charter, that the fund should be paid only to the “families” of the members.</p> <p>2. A by-law or constitution, adopted by such association, which enlarges the class of beneficiaries fixed in its charter, is unauthorized and void. '</p> <p>3. In his application for membership a member designated, as his beneficiary, a brother, who did not live with the member at the time of designation or since. Held: That the brother was not one of the family of the deceased member within contemplation of the statute and articles of incorporation in force at the time of the designation, and such designation was invalid.</p>