The Washington bee., 1908-02-15
RIGHT AND JUSTICE CONQUERs

| teIIOWs OF District Grand Lodge No. %
Grand United Order of Odd Fellows
and the Order in general, Of the decree
Of the Chancery, dissolving the injunc-
ton July 10th, 1907, from which deci-
sion an appeal was taken to the SUI
preme Court, in the following language
THE STATE OF ALABAMA-JU-
DICIAL DEPARTMENT, SU-
PREAdE COURT OF
ALABAMA
November Term, Iooz-8
! 5 Tiv. $40
{. F. johnson ct al,
vs..
C. a. Howe ct al.
Appeal from Jefferson Chancery Court.
Mcclellan, J.
The only question presented for re
view on this appeal is the propriety of
the action taken below in the dissolu-
ton, on the denial of the answer, of the
temporary injunction issued. The bill
is grounded on a contest between the
COmplainants and the respondents as to
who were the officers de jure of Grand
Lodge No 23 of the Grand United Or
der OF Odd Fellows OF America. As
setting their equal rights to the several
Offices, described in the bill and to the
funds cormitted by the laws of the
Order to such officers, the complain
ants seek to invoke the powers of the
Court of Equity to restrain the respond
ent, who are denounced as usurpers
from exercising the functions and per-
forming the duties of such Office; and to
require OF the respondents an account
ing with such complainants as the true
tenants of such Offices. The bill further
charges the respondents with serious
misconduct in respect of the funds be-
longing to the mentioned Order.
The bill and answer are voluminou.
in the extreme; but it will suffice to
say that every material allegation con-
tanned in the bill is unequivocally de-
MED and that in full recital of the facts
il the premises. Under such circum-
stances a respondent is entitled to a dis
sclutionl of an injunction, unless it is
apparent irreparabIe mischief will prob
ably follow the dissolution, OF some pc
culiar conditions exist, justifying a de-
parture from the general rule stated.
Turner VS.. Stephens, no Alabama, $40.
We are of the opinion that the exception
described is not present in this case. AS
indicated, the gist of the controversy IS
which set of officers IS entitled to the
position, and therefore, to the funds
received, receivable, and to be disbursed
under the rules and regulations of the
Order Whether the one set or the 9TH
er is finally found thus entitled, the on
ly mischief, aside from the misappro-
Priation of the funds charged on the
one side and with full, explicit and full
allegation denied on the other, to which
the Order will be subjected, is that al
ways incidental to such factional con-
test as this shown to be.
The continuance of the injunction
could not operate to induce harmony
and allay strife under such circum-
stances, and the injury to the order
consequential upon the existence of the
state of hostility thus pervading almost
the whole membership of the Order in
this State is and must necessarily be be-
yond the effect of any order or judg-
ment of the civil courts. 1t cannot be
assumed in the face of the. denials of
the answer that the misconduct charg-
ed against the, respondents in the hand
ling of funds belonging to the Order
are true, or that irreparable injury will
attend, or even has attended, the recep- /
ton by respondents of unds drawn from
the membership under the rules of the
We entertain no doubt of the correct |
ness of the order OF dissolution entered
below, and it IS affirmed.
Affirred: Tyson, and Dowdell and
Anderson, j., concurring.
From the given statements there can
be no further doubt in the minds of
any true Odd Fellow that c. A. Howe, |
P. J. Crenshaw, H. S. Chadwick, R.
L. Douglass, T. w. Owens and H. A.
Knox are the lawful and legal officers
of the District Grand Lodge No. p, |
and they are now in a position to foster
the Order in said District and bring
it up to that high standard to which it
had risen before a number of men call
ing themselves true Odd Fellows dis
rupted and attempted to break up the
Order in this State by asserting their
false claims to Office All members of
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