1. Becoming a member of an incorporated beneficiary society is
more than a contract; it is entering into a complex and abiding
relation, and the rights of membership are to be governed by the
law of the the society's incorporation. P.
267 U. S.
551.
2. Hence, other states, irrespective of where the certificate of
membership was issued, cannot attach to a membership rights against
the society which are refused by the law of the domicil.
Id.
3. Where a bylaw of such a corporation provided that absence of
any member unheard of should not give any right to recover on any
benefit certificate until the member's expectancy of life had
expired, and this was upheld by the supreme court of its
domiciliary state even as against memberships antedating the bylaw,
held that a decision of a court of another state denying
it this effect failed to give full faith and credit to the
domiciliary charter.
Royal Arcanum v. Green, 237 U.
S. 531.
Id.
197 N.W. 129 reversed.
CERTIORARI to a judgment of the Supreme Court of the Nebraska
which affirmed a judgment for the plaintiff (here respondent) in an
action on a benefit certificate.
Page 267 U. S. 550
MR. JUSTICE HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is a suit by the beneficiary of a certificate issued by a
fraternal beneficiary society incorporated in Illinois. The member
to whom the certificate was issued was the plaintiff's husband, and
the ground of recovery is that the husband had disappeared, and had
not been heard of for ten years before this suit was brought. His
expectancy of life according to the tables had not expired, and the
defense is a bylaw of the corporation to the effect that:
"Long continued absence of any member unheard of shall not . . .
give any right to recover on any benefit certificate . . . until
the full term of the member's expectancy of life, according to the
National Fraternal Congress Table of Mortality, has expired, . . .
and this law shall be in full force and effect any statute of any
state or country or rule of common law of any state or country to
the contrary notwithstanding."
The only facts that need be mentioned are that the certificate
seems to have been issued in South Dakota, although there was no
allegation or proof concerning the law of that state, and that it
was issued in 1901, while the bylaw relied upon was not adopted
until 1908. But the bylaw has been held valid and binding upon the
members of the corporation by the Supreme Court of Illinois,
although they had become members before the change.
Steen v.
Modern Woodmen of America, 296 Ill. 104. The Supreme Court of
Nebraska affirmed a judgment for the plaintiff, seemingly, from the
cases cited, on the ground either that the rule of evidence must be
determined by the
lex fori, or, more probably, that the
bylaw was unreasonable.
Mixer v. Modern Woodmen of
America, 197 N.W. 129. The result is that, if the validity of
the bylaw ought to be determined by the laws of Illinois, the
plaintiff is allowed to recover upon a state of facts which the
contract expressly stipulates
Page 267 U. S. 551
shall not give her that right. A writ of certiorari was issued
by this Court. 265 U.S. 576.
The indivisible unity between the members of a corporation of
this kind in respect of the fund from which their rights are to be
enforced and the consequence that their rights must be determined
by a single law, is elaborated in
Supreme Council of the Royal
Arcanum v. Green, 237 U. S. 531,
237 U. S. 54.
The act of becoming a member is something more than a contract, it
is entering into a complex and abiding relation, and, as marriage
looks to domicil, membership looks to and must be governed by the
law of the state granting the incorporation. We need not consider
what other states may refuse to do, but we deem it established that
they cannot attach to membership rights against the company that
are refused by the law of the domicil. It does not matter that the
member joined in another state. In the above-cited case, Green
became a member of a Massachusetts corporation in New York, and the
state court held on ordinary principles of contract that his rights
were governed by New York law.
Green v Royal Arcanum, 206
N.Y. 591, 597. But the decision was reversed, and it was held a
failure to give full faith and credit to the Massachusetts charter
as construed by the Massachusetts court that Green was relieved by
decree from paying assessments increased by the corporation after
his contract was made. We are of opinion that the decision in that
case governs this, and that the judgment must be reversed.
Judgment reversed.