Case ID: nys_60/html/0461-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "MacLEAN, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

(29 Misc. Rep. 339.)
    RUBINO v. FRATERNA ASS’N.
    (Supreme Court, Appellate Term.
    October 25, 1899.)
    Beneficial Associations—By-Laws—Arrears of Dues—Suspension.
    A by-law of a beneficial association, providing that a member in arrears for dues shall be suspended for 30 days after payment, is not unreasonable.
    Appeal from municipal court, borough of Manhattan, First district.
    Action by Antonio Bubino against the Fraterna Association. There was a judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.
    Reversed.
    Argued before FEEEDMAN, P. J., and MacLEAJST and LEVEJST-TBITT, JJ.
    Achille J. Oishei, for appellant.
    Emanuel Hertz, for respondent.
   MacLEAN, J.

According to the by-law of the defendant association, of which the plaintiff was a member, and from which he claims “sick benefits” from December 26, 1898, to January 4, 1899, every member shall pay his monthly dues, between the first and last of each month, and if, at the end of the month, he be not in good standing with the treasurer, he shall be suspended for 30 days, such suspension to commence from the day he shall put himself into good standing with the treasurer. The plaintiff was in default for his November dues, and so not in good standing with the treasurer from the end of November until December 12, 1898, and he was therefore suspended, and not entitled to sick benefits, until on and after January 11, 1899. In the judgment here appealed from, the learned justice erroneously awarded him recovery for sick benefits during the period of his suspension. The penalty of suspension for a defined period, because of default in timely payment of dues which the member has obligated himself to pay, was not unreasonable, and the association did not waive that penalty by accepting the dues. Jennings v. Society (decided at the July term) 59 N. Y. Supp. 862. The judgment should be reversed, and, as there is no dispute as to the facts, with costs to the appellant.

Judgment reversed, with costs to the appellant. All concur.