Head Camp v. Irish

23 Colo. App. 85
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 15, 1912
DocketNo. 3352
StatusPublished

This text of 23 Colo. App. 85 (Head Camp v. Irish) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Head Camp v. Irish, 23 Colo. App. 85 (Colo. Ct. App. 1912).

Opinion

Morgan, J.

Judgment was entered in the district court of the City and County of .Denver in favor of the plaintiff, Mrs. Irish, against the defendant, The Head Camp, Pacific jurisdiction, Woodmen of the World, in an action upon a benefit certificate for $3,000, issued to plaintiff’s husband, naming her as beneficiary. The action was tried before [87]*87the court, without a jury, upon an agreed statement of facts. It is a very pleasant surprise to find no controversy over the pleadings or the facts, and that the divergent views of the law are such as to justify an appeal. The appellant association asks a reversal on the ground that the beneficiary was not entitled to more than 70 per cent of the amount named in the certificate, as provided in a by-law adopted some years after the certificate was issued. The insured, at the time he received the certificate, and up to the date of his death, was a mining engineer; and when the certificate was issued, such occupation was not included in the by-laws of the association as an extra hazard; but appellant contends that a by-law was adopted, some time afterward, that classed such occupation as extra hazardous, and provided that a member of the order following such occupation should either pay 20 cents additional on his assessments, for every $1,000 of his insurance, or submit to a reduction of the amount named in the certificate as above mentioned; and contends that the insured should have paid the 20 cents additional after the passage of such by-law, and in the event he failed to do so, that his beneficiary would not be entitled to receive more than 70 per cent of the face value of the certificate. The insured never paid the additional 20 cents. There are two propositions of law involved in the consideration of this by-law: First, was it intended. to be retroactive; second, is it sufficiently definite in its language to include such occupation. There are several other propositions arising that might be decided, but it would require a very lengthy opinion, and endless consideration of conflicting authorities, and as the judgment may be affirmed on either one of the foregoing propositions, those two only will be considered.

First, it was not intended to be retroactive. The insured w;as a mining engineer when! the certificate was issued, and it was so stated in his application. There was [88]*88no provision in the constitution or by-laws, or the certificate, at that time, making such occupation an extra hazard. It is conceded that, in the event of the death of the insured, at any time before the by-law was adopted, his beneficiary would have been entitled to the full amount named in the certificate. The assessments were paid as provided in the certificate the same after the by-law was adopted as before; but after the death of the insured, which occurred about four years after the adoption of the by-law, the association refused to pay more than 70 per cent of the face of the certificate, relying upon the by-law aforesaid as a basis for its refusal. Afterwards the 70 per cent was accepted, with the understanding, however, that this action might be brought for the balance.

Appellant contends that, as the certificate provides that the payment of the $3,000 was “subject to all conditions named in this certificate and named in its fundamental laws, and liable to forfeiture if said member shall not comply with said conditions, laws, and such by-laws and rules as are or may be adopted by the head camp, or the local camp of which he is a member,” and as. the assured never paid the additional 20 cents, he is presumed to have accepted the option provided in the by-law as to the 70 per cent of the face value of the certificate.

In a case like this, where the certificate sued upon 'contains such a clause, the insured is bound by any reasonable by-law thereafter legally adopted, Head Camp, Pac. Juris., Woodmen of the World, v. Woods, 34 Colo., 1, subject to the settled rule of construction, that'it will not be given a retroactive force unless such intention is clearly disclosed by the terms thereof. The question, therefore, to be considered is, was the by-law intended to have such retroactive force as would require the assured to accept either one of the options provided. A. O. U. W. [89]*89v. Brown, 112 Ga., 545 (37 S. E., 890); Wist v. Grand Lodge, 22 Ore., 271 (29 Pac., 610).

On this proposition, Mr. Niblaclc, in his work on Benefit Societies, etc., in section 27, pages 64 and 65, states the rule as follows:

“Members may contract with reference to laws of future enactment, — may ag’ree to be bound by any future by-laws or amendments which may be passed by the society, as if they were existing at the date of the contract. They may consent that new by-laws or amendments shall enter into and form parts of their contracts, modifying or varying them. But the fact that a member has consented to be bound by future laws or amendments does not alter the rule that they will be given a prospective operation in the absence of a clear intent that they shall act retrospectively.
“Retroactive by-laws are regarded as impolitic and unwise, and they may often be said to be unjust and oppressive. Although they may in a given case be valid, they will always be subjected to such construction as will circumscribe their operation within the narrowest possible limits, consistent with the manifest intention of the society as indicated by the language used. ’ ’

Mr. Bacon, in his work, in section 187, states the rule in the same manner, to-wit:

“It is a settled rule of construction that laws will not be interpreted to be retrospective unless by their terms it is clearly intended to be so. They are construed as operating only on cases or facts which come into existence after the laws were passed. ‘ Every statute, ’ it has been said, ‘which take's away or impairs vested rights, acquired under existing laws, or creates a new obligation, or imposes a new duty, or attaches a new disability in respect of transactions or considerations already passed, must be presumed, out of respect to the legislature, to be [90]*90intended not to have a retroactive operation.’ Eights will not be interfered with unless there are express words to that effect. It is not enough that upon some principles of interpretation a retroactive construction could be given to the law, but the intent to make it retroactive must be so plain and demonstrable as to exclude its prospective operation. £It is not enough that general terms are employed, broad enough to cover past transactions,’ for laws ‘are to be construed-as prospective only,’ if possible. In fact, so great is the disfavor in which such laws are held, and.so generally are they condemned by the courts, that they will not construe any law, no matter how positive in its terms, as intended to interfere with existing contracts or vested rights, unless the intention that it shall so operate is expressly declared or it is to be necessarily implied.”

The by-law in controversy, when first adopted in 1899, and as set forth in section 103 thereof, begins as follows: “Any person to become

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Bluebook (online)
23 Colo. App. 85, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/head-camp-v-irish-coloctapp-1912.