Court Opinion

ID: 9581599
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:16:36.914819+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:07.135027
License: Public Domain

RUDOLPH, J.
(dissenting). Under SDC Supp. 11.2204(4) the 129 applicants for membership in the Cooperative could not be required to become members but they “have the right to become members upon such terms as may be prescribed in the by-laws.” The by-laws provide that no one shall become a member unless accepted by the Board of Directors, and all applications for membership not acted upon or rejected by the Board of Directors shall be submitted to a vote of the members of the Cooperative. The 129 applicants were not accepted by the Board of Directors or the members and unless this by-law is invalid they have no right to membership.
This Cooperative is a non-profit membership corporation. SDC Supp. 11.2202. By express statutory provision the by-laws may prescribe qualification and limitations in respect of membership. SDC Supp. 11.2209. The by-law referred to above limits the membership to those accepted by the Board of Directors or members. This limitation is not inconsistent with the statute but seems to me to be in accord therewith, and within its contemplation. The by-law not being in conflict with the statute the facts here presented fall squarely within the rule which has general acceptance and is well stated in the Illinois case, W. G. Press & Co. v. Fahy, 313 Ill. 262, 145 N.E. 103, 105, as follows:
“A corporation not for pecuniary profit has a right to adopt rules prescribing the only mode in which membership therein can be maintained, and no one can rightfully claim membership who has not been admitted in the mode thus prescribed; nor has a court of equity any power to compel the corporation to issue a certificate of membership to an applicant who has not complied with such mode.”
*191The charter and by-laws referred to in the Arizona case cited in the majority opinion differ so materially from the statute and by-laws before us that the case is not authority in this proceeding.
RENTTO, J., concurs in this dissent.