DocketNumber: Nos. 18,850-(104)
Citation Numbers: 127 Minn. 247
Judges: Brown
Filed Date: 10/30/1914
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 9/9/2022
Action by the beneficiaries to recover on a mutual benefit insurance certificate issued by defendant upon the life of Barth Geronime. Plaintiffs prevailed, and defendant appealed from an order denying its alternative motion.
The facts are undisputed. Assured made written application for admission to defendant order, declaring therein that he was a prac
Plaintiffs’ contention that the clause in question is invalid as being against public policy is not sustained. (Barry v. Catholic Knights, 119 Wis. 362, 96 N. W. 797); which brings us to the defense based thereon.
“The certificate,” said Chief Justice Start, in the first case cited, page 302, “if there be any fair doubt as to its meaning, must be construed most strongly against the defendant; for the language used was selected by it for its own benefit.”
This declaration accords with the general rule. 29 Cyc. 67. But the doctrine of these cases and the rule stated cannot be invoked unless the words of the policy, when given their fair and ordinary meaning presumptively in the minds of the parties, fail to make the intent clear as to at least some of the language used, and leave that degree of uncertainty which would justify honest differences of opinion and argument between intelligent men as to their meaning. Graves v. Knights of Maccabees, 199 N. Y. 397, 401, 92 N. E. 792, 139 Am. St. 912. Finally:
“If it be left in doubt, in view of the general tenor of the in*250 -strument and the relations of the contracting parties, whether given words were used in an enlarged or restricted sense, other things being -equal, that construction should be accepted which is most beneficial ;to the promisee.” Bacon, Ben. Soc. (3d ed.) § 179.
The prefix “non” denotes mere negation or absence of the thing or quality to which it is applied, and no doubt the word “catholic,” wherever used in the policy, means Roman Catholic, in which sense •we also will hereinafter employ it. This, however, does not solve the question; for, as we have seen, literality is not decisive. The inquiry must be: Is there such uncertainty as to what a non-Catholic .aid association is, within the purview of the policy, that ordinarily intelligent persons might honestly differ in regard thereto? In our •opinion there is such. In other words, we think it fairly debatable •whether these words were used in a restricted or an enlarged sense, ■that is, whether they were intended to exclude assured from membership in any secret aid association not composed exclusively of Catholics, as is contended by defendant, or merely to proscribe connection •with organizations objectionable to the Catholic Church or discriminating against its members and adherents. Reading the forfeiture ■clauses together in accordance with the familiar rule, and remembering that it does not appear that defendant was connected with the ■Catholic Church or that either the laws of the latter or of defendant 'interdicted membership in associations of the character of the Mystic Workers, it may well be doubted that forfeiture of a policy on account of such membership was contemplated, when assured might, notwithstanding his connection with the last named association, prop■erly be considered a rightful and reputable member of defendant .society and allowed to remain therein until his death. No motive is disclosed for prohibiting membership in societies open to Catholics, sanctioned by their actual membership, not disapproved by the -church, and of which assured’s priest might have been a member; and, construing the provision in question, as we must, most favorably to .assured, we decline to declare the forfeiture relied on to defeat recovery herein.
Order affirmed.