The Irish standard., 1896-08-08

Claim that this loss should haveSbeen paid
out of the reserve fund, because on that
day, on which the card was issued the
4secretary's own figures show that there
wass$2,221 in said fund. His going back
to the date Of Bro. Ginness' death, May
14th, and showing that On that date he
did not have 81, 900 in the reserve fund is
the veriest nonsense "A lawyer would
GILL 1t 'spettifogging. 2 The secretary had
no official knowledge Of the death Of Bro.
sMcGinness until the formal proofs were
submitted to him. The secretary has ten
sdoys after proofs Of death have been sub
mitted in which to issue the assessment
notice. Now, If he awaited himself Of
the full limit Of ten days he must have
received the proofs OF Bro. McGinness'
death not earlier than May 18th, because
the notice is dated June Stu, andI submit
that THAI was the first official knowledge
the secretary had of this loss. Is Bro.
'Shaughnessy prepared to say that he
did not have $4,000 in the reserve fund
on May 18th? think not. We know to
an absolute certainty that he did have
1921 on June 9Th, bevause he says so
himself. Any person of ordinary fntelli-
gence who will read section 16 Of the
constitution carefully and without preju-:
dice, cannot help coming to the same
conc lusion that have, viz: that this loss
should have been paid out of that fund
In order to fortify my position, submit
ted section 16 of the constitution, and as
sessment notice No. 116 to the state in
slrance department, and asked an opln-
ion as. to it's legality. Here is the lnsur-
q :, "a tnnrn n1i,zsinnpr'a ran1y. W
s,,'.%s ~ st. Paul, Aug. 3, 1895.
P. Kenney, ESQ.,, Minneapolis, Mimi
Dear Sir: In reply to your inquiry OF this
date as to whether Assessment No. 1l6:
of the Ancient Order of Hibernians Life
Insurance Fund was legal, I would say
that Article Is, of the Constitution pro-
v:des that, "Should the said reserve fund
reach the sum of $4,000 then the next
death claim shall be paid therefrom and
no assessment shall be levied for that
DEATH" It seems to me that the wording
of the above provision is plain and can
be construed in no other way than that
If the said reserve fund amounted to
81, 900 at the time Of sending out the regu-
lar assessment then no assessment shall
be made, but the death claim them due
shall be paid out of said reserve fund. !
notice the card sent out for assessment
no. 116 by the secretary states thaht the
amount In the reserve fund was 1921.
being more than the sum fixed by the
constitution as noted above.
I think that this death claim should be
paid out of the 1921 then on hand.
Yours truly, D. c. LIGHTBOURN,
Deputy Insurance Commissioner.
The above opinion is conclusive and
leaves no doubt as to the proper constrlc-
ton Of section 16, and comes from the
final authority in matters of this kind
l understand that the state insurance
board has FASTENED to indorse the posi-
ton of the state secretary. This only
goes to show what little thought or con-
sideration boards of this character give
to important matters of this kind. Because
the secretary had taken a certain stand
they ait once and without investigation
assume that he must be right. BY read
ing the above opinion from the insur-
ance department the board may be able
to determine where it is at and / trust
they will, without further delay take the
necessary steps to have this matter set
tied in accordance with the ruling Of the
insurance commissioner:
Now, one word more, and this is the
most disagreenb BILE part Of the commune
cation. Because have taken this matter
up the secretary has seen fit to charge
that I was "actuated by desire to create:
a distrustful feeling among the members
which would eventually disrupt"
Bro O'Shaughnessy lost control of his
temper when he wrote that. He forgot
for the moment that he was Hibernian
and that he was speaking of a brother
.Hibernian, or he would not have allowed
himself to "wilfully wrong a brother" by
making s'1ch an uncalled for unwarrant-'
ed and unfounded charge without a scin-
ti.la of evidence to support it other than:
the fact that I had presumed to criticise
his official action. And surely Bro.
O'Shanghnessy will not set up the mon
strous doctrine that any criticism of his
official acts must be considered an at
tempt to disrupt" the organization. I
shall not retaliate in kind. shall, in
speaking of Bro. O'Shaughnessy exercise
that spirit Of 'True Christian charity"
which he has ignored in his reply to me,
and will say that consider him too good
a Hibernian to wilfully do anything
which would injure this grand old organ
ization Of ours, of which we are all so
justly proud.
i believe that in this matter Bro.
O'Shaughnessy has permitted his zeal for
the building up Of a reserve fund to- get
the better,of his judgment and let 1t go at
that. P. KENNEY.