The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-05-26

A Judge Decides agafsns I'm Attempt 60
Realize on "a $4,000 knights OF Py-
thfas Policy.
Chicago Re cord.)


Chicago Re cord.l
Points in life insurance law OF inter
est TO fraternal societies figured In a
decision Of Judge Allen OF Springfield
rendered in the United States circuit
court &c the northern district OF Illi-
nois Tuesday. The cause involved the
attempt of the estate of Walter c.
Lloyd, q Chicago man who died March
II, 1897, TO recover the fee amount Of
a 50, 200 policy in the Knigh.s OF Pyth-
las taken out in 1889. Lloyd lived al
1872 Larrabee street and was a race
track telegraph operator.
The order set up the claim that as
Lloyd had died Of scirrhosis OF the liver.
due to alcoholism, there was a proper
defense to the policy in a bylaw enact
ed by the supreme lodge in 1896. which
provided for invalidation Of insurance
IL a members death resulted from sui
eide or was caused or superinduced by
tie use OF Intoxicating liquors. Mean
time there was rendered to Loyd's
heirs, a wife and two children, the sum
of s610. being part payment based on
liability for such proportionate amount
OF the policy as the number OF years
the insured lived after contracting for
the MISUNDERSTANDING to the num-
Der of years accounted to him-thirty-
~eight-under the American mortality
table of expectancy, on which the pol
icy was computed.
Counsel for the Lloyd estate contend
ed that the bylaw alleged to invali-
| date the insurance, having been passed
after the contract was entered into, was
| not retroactive in its effect, and the
| suicide-liquor enactment was called in
to question at the same time.
In everything the contention that the
bylaw had no retroactive force Judge
Allen rested on a clause in the policy
by which the insured bound himself to
abide by all laws now in force or that
may hereafter be made On the 9TH
er issues raised he held that the enact
ment of suicide-alchoholism clauses by
insurance corporations, particularly
fraternal organizations, was unques-
tionably an invaluable protective fea-
ture, AM he declined to declare the by
law in question invalid on the ground
of unreasouableness. Il should feel
great hcsitancy, as l do, for the first
time to declare void" Judge Allen said.
IAN Important provision of this char
acter, manifestly enacted for a wise
purpose, and while the forfeiture is
onerous and the beneficiaries in this
action are defeated I do not feel at lib
eerty under all the circumstances to
hold the bylaw imperative"
1t was further alleged by the isur-
ance claimants that the bylaw was I'M
constitutional, having been adopted al
the Nashville convention Of the SUI
preme lodge in 1896 without having
been read on three separate occasions,
Attorney Moritz Rosenth al, on behalf
of the knights Of Pythias ~organiza-
ton, submitted that the constitution
of a corporation was Of no more effec1
than a b. law itself n that the only
limitation of authority was exercised
by the charter, differing in this re.
spect from the constitution OF a state
which limits the power of legislatures
1t was commended that the supreme
lodge thus had power Of revocation In
convention assembled, and Judge AlleI
upheld that position.