Modern Order of Pr&198torians v. Childs

108 So. 23, 214 Ala. 403, 1926 Ala. LEXIS 20
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJanuary 14, 1926
Docket6 Div. 411.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 108 So. 23 (Modern Order of Pr&198torians v. Childs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Modern Order of Pr&198torians v. Childs, 108 So. 23, 214 Ala. 403, 1926 Ala. LEXIS 20 (Ala. 1926).

Opinion

BOULDIN, J.

The suit is upon a fraternal insurance certificate. The defense is lapse of the policy for nonpayment of monthly dues.

The constitution of the order, made part of the contract, requires monthly dues to be paid on or before the 20th of each month, as a condition to the continuance of the policy in force. Dues are payable to the “worthy recorder,” and officer of the local “council.” Section 3, art. 20, defining the duty of the member in making payment, and section 1, art. 37, limiting the authority of agents and officers, will be found in the statement of the case.

Plaintiff’s evidence tended to show: In September, 1923, C. H. Gibson was “state manager” of the order, with jurisdiction over North Alabama, and “worthy recorder” of the local council at Birmingham; that he arranged with J. A. Stocks, a member of the order, having a real estate office near the Birmingham office of the order, to solicit members and take applications for membership and insurance, furnished Stocks with blank applications, and with blank receipts for dues under seal of the order and with the name of a former worthy recorder printed thereon, and authorized him to collect dues from time to time on policies he should obtain, issue receipts therefor, and make settlement with Gibson when he should call at Stocks’ office for that purpose. Pursuant to this authority, Stocks solicited Wm. P. Childs, the insured, took his application, collected and receipted for the dues of October, November, and December, 1923. The application was accepted, the member admitted' to the order, and the beneficiary insurance certificate issued payable to this plaintiff, as father of the insured.

*405 Prior to January 20, 1024, tlie insured casually met Stocks and paid him the dues for January, February, and March, and after January 20th called at Stocks’ office and obtained a receipt therefor. The insured came to his death as the result of an automobile accident on February 16, 1924. On learning of his death, Stocks informed Mr. Glover, the new worthy recorder, of having collected the dues, and offered to turn them in, which was refused on the ground that the policy had lapsed.

Defendant’s evidence tended to show that on January 4, 1924, Mr. Gibson, preparing to remove to Florida, ceased to be manager and recorder, and was succeeded as manager by O. S. Chapman, and as recorder by C. A. Glover. There is evidence that neither Mr. Stocks nor Mr. Childs, the insured, had any notice of any change of Mr. Gibson’s. relations to the order at the time of the alleged payment of dues in January.

Defendant’s request for the general affirmative charge is predicated upon the want of authority in Stocks to collect the dues from the insured. This is the vital question in the case.

A fraternal benefit society has power to prescribe the time for payment of dues, the officer to whom they shall be paid, and make compliance therewith a condition precedent to the continuance of the insurance in force. The constitution of the order may be incorporated in the contract by reference, and may therein provide that no subordinate body, nor any .of its subordinate officers or members shall waive any of the provisions of the constitution. Code 1923, § 8477; Beiser v. Sovereign Camp, W. O. W., 74 So. 235, 199 Ala. 41; Sovereign Camp, W. O. W. v. Blanks, 94 So. 554, 208 Ala. 449; United Order of Golden Cross v. Hooser, 49 So. 354, 160 Ala. 334.

Do these rules, in the light of the constitution of the order, and under the facts disclosed by the record, avoid the action of the state manager in making Stocks an agent to collect dues of members insured through him? Nothing in the constitution, so far as appears in the record, defines the powers of a state manager, unless the general limitations of section !, art. 37, be so construed.

There is evidence that the state manager, as such, has authority to collect dues. This, within itself, implies that the corporate body had so far made him its alter ego in the management of business within his jurisdiction, that he could waive the requirement for payment of dues only to the worthy recorder. That, in his capacity as manager, he employed an agent, provided him with blanks, arming him with the indicia of an ordinary insurance agency; that the agent, acting upon his appointment, did write the insurance and collect three months’ dues from the insured, all of which was accepted and the policy issued—are circumstances tending to show that the state manager was empowered so to act for the company at least as to persons dealing with the order through such agency.

“ * * * ‘Unless his authority is especially restricted, the authority and power of a general or managing officer or agent are coextensive with the powers of the corporation itself, and he has authority to do any act on its behalf which is usual and necessary in the ordinary course of the company’s business (Baird Lbr. Co. v. Devlin; 27 So. 425, 124 Ala. 245; Rhodes Fur. Co. v. Weeden, 19 So. 318, 108 Ala. 252), or which he is held out to the public as having authority to do, and may exercise all the powers which the board of directors could exercise or authorize under the same circumstances in the general management of the corporation business. * * * The fact that he occupies the position of general or managing agent implies, without further proof, his authority to do anything that the corporation itself may do, so long as the act done pertains to the ordinary business of the corporation.’ ” Sheip v. Baer, 97 So. 698, 700, 210 Ala. 231, 233; 14a C. J. p. 360, § 2221; 1 Mechem on Agency (2d Ed.) §§ 979, 980; Tenn. River Trans. Co. v. Kavanaugh, 13 So. 283, 101 Ala. 1; Montgomery Furniture Co. v. Hardaway, 16 So. 29, 104 Ala. 100.

It is of the nature of the insurance business to act largely through agencies. In the conduct of business in states remote from the head office, the presence of some one on the ground with authority to speak for the company in all matters pertaining to the ordinary conduct of the business makes for the advantage of the insurer as well as the public. When a fraternal insurance company, although operating under a constitution and by-laws designed to promote the fraternal and insurance features of the order, organizes its insurance business on the usual lines, placing at the head of its state organization a state manager, he will, in the absence of notice to the contrary, be treated as possessed with the implied authority going with the position.

However full the provisions of. section 1, art. 37,' limiting the power of officers and agents, this does not apply to action of the corporate- body. So, if the governing body created the office of state manager, and empowered him, as such, to collect dues, this within itself is evidence of waiver of the requirement that dues should be paid solely to the worthy recorder of a local council. Members coming into the order through dealings with an agent named by the state manager, whose act in collecting dues had not been questioned, were, in the absence of notice of a change of status, authorized to deal with such agent, having possession of the official signed receipts of the order for dues. These facts were evidence of continuing agency to members who had been dealing with him as such.

*406 “* * •*■ '‘When third parties have dealt with an agent clothed with general powers, the agency continues as to them, after revocation, ■until they have notice thereof.

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Bluebook (online)
108 So. 23, 214 Ala. 403, 1926 Ala. LEXIS 20, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/modern-order-of-pr198torians-v-childs-ala-1926.