BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATIONS. Volun tary associations for mutual assistance in time of need and sickness, and for the care of families of deceased members. Niblack, Ben. Soc. and Accid. Ins. These associa tions form in substance a very effective sys tem of co-operative life insurance. The pay ment to the beneficiary is not a gift, but a right arising from the contract of member ship, and when the conditions of membership have been fulfilled may be enforced at law ; id. ch. xxvi. The suspension of a subordi nate lodge will not defeat a recovery unless legally done; Young v. Grand Lodge of Sons of Progress, 173 Pa. 302, 33 Ad. 1038.
In a suit for sick benefits the constitution and by-laws of the society constitute the con tract between the parties, and the mode which they provide to ascertain the right to benefits must be pursued in order to re cover ; Delaware Lodge No. 1, I. 0. 0. F., v. Allmon, 1 Pennewill (Del.) 160, 39 Atl. 1098. When after a certificate had been issued under the law as it then stood payable at death to a creditor (named), a subsequent law prohibiting payment to other than rela tives or dependents of the insured could have no retroactive effect nor compel him to desig nate a new beneficiary ; Emmons v. Supreme Conclave, I. 0. II., 6 Pennewill (Del.) 115, 63 Atl. 871; Peterson v. Gibson, 191 Ill. 365, 61 N. E. 127, 54 L. R. A. 836, 85 Am. St. Rep. 263; Sargent v. Knights of Honor, 158 Mass. 557, 33 N. E. 650; Mulderick v. Grand Lodge of A. 0. U. W., 155 Pa. 505, 26 Atl. 663; Wist v. Grand Lodge A. 0. U. W., 22 Or. 271, 29 Pac. 610, 29 Am. St. Rep. 603; Had ley v. Queen City Camp No. 27, W. 0. W., 1 Tenn. Ch. App. 413; Roberts v. Cohen, 60 App. Div. 259, 70 N. Y. Supp. 57. The bene ficiary has not a vested right and a change could have been made by the member but the legislation was intended to be prospec tive and could not proprio vigore disturb existing relations; Hadley v. Queen City Camp No. 27, W. 0. W., 1 Tenn. Ch. App. 413.
Where a statute authorizes a beneficial association to issue certificates for the bene fit of certain enumerated relatives or de pendents, and a person outside the speci fied classes is named in the certificate, that fact will not avoid the right in the fund of the beneficiaries designated by law ; Royal League v. Shields, 251 Ill. 250, 96 N. E. 45,
36 L. R. A. (N. S.) 208. A servant is not a dependent; Grand Lodge A. 0. II. W. of New Jersey v. Gandy, 63 N. J. Eq. 692, 53 At]. 142; a mother, under certain facts, has been held not to be; Elsey Y. Odd Fellows Mut.
Relief Ass'n, 142 Mass. 224, 7 N. E. 844 ; or a brother ; Supreme Council American Le gion of Honor v. Smith, 45 N. J. Eq. 466, 17 Atl. 770 ; an adopted child may or may not be a dependent, and the dependency will not rest upon whether there has been a legal adoption; 'Murphy v. Nowak, 223 Ill. 301, 79 N. E. 112, 7 L. R. A. (N. S.) 393. A person who assisted a deceased member and took care of him in his last illness was held not to be a dependent; Groth v. Central Verein der Gegenseitigen Unterstuetzungs Gesell schaft Germania, 95 Wis. 140, 70 N. W. 80; a creditor is not; Skillings v. Benefit Ass'n, 146 Mass. 217, 15 N. E. 566; nor an illegiti mate child, even though the father had been boarding with the mother and paying there for; Lavigne v. Ligue des Patriotes, 178 Mass. 25, 59 N. E. 674, 54 L. R. A. 814, 86 Am. St. Rep. 460; Supreme Tent of Knights of Maccabees of the World v. McAllister, 132 Mich. 69, 92 N. W. 770, 102 Am. St. Rep. 382; James v. Supreme Council of Royal Arcanum, 130 Fed. 1014. Dependency for favor or affection or companionship is held to be excluded; Alexander v. Parker, 144 Ill. 366, 33 N. E. 183, 19 L. IL A. 187, where an affianced wife was held not to be a dependent ; contra, McCarthy v. Supreme Lodge, 153 Mass. 314, 26 N. E. 866, 11 L. R. A. 144, 25 Am. St. Rep. 637.
It is held in some courts that a woman is a dependent who in good faith lives with a member in the belief that she is his wife, although there is no legal marriage; Su preme Lodge, A. 0. U. W., v. Hutchinson, 6 Ind. App. 399, 33 N. E. 816 ; Supreme Tent of Knights of Maccabees of the World v. McAllister, 132 Mich. 69, 92 N. W. 770, 102 Am. St. Rep. 382 ; contra, Severa v. Beranak, 138 Wis. 144, 119 N. W. 814. Where the association has charter power to pay sums to the family and heirs of deceased mem bers, a contract to pay to his legal represen tatives was construed to mean his heirs; Harton's Estate, 213 Pa. 499, 62 Atl. 1058, 4 L. R. A. (N. S.) 939.