DocketNumber: No. 1690.
Citation Numbers: 190 S.W. 251
Judges: WILLSON, C.J.
Filed Date: 11/30/1916
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 1/13/2023
The writ was prosecuted from a judgment by default against plaintiff in error in favor of Tommy Brown, in his individual capacity and as next friend of the minors, Tommy, Jr., Rosellee, Mary Ella, William, and Louella Brown, for $300, the sum claimed to be due them as the beneficiaries named in a benefit certificate issued by plaintiff in error to Hattie Brown, deceased.
It appears that the judgment was unauthorized, because service, as required by law, of a citation was not had on plaintiff in error before it was rendered. The service was on one Lottie Gatlin, chief recorder of one of plaintiff In error's local lodges, when it should have been on the commissioner of insurance; for, it seems, plaintiff in error was a fraternal beneficiary society (but whether incorporated or not does not appear in the record). The Legislature in section 17 of Act April 2, 1913 (Gen. Laws, p. 227), after declaring the service of a citation in a suit against such a society shall be made on the commissioner of insurance, declared:
"Legal process shall not be served upon any such society except in the manner provided herein."
Defendants in error cite Bankers' Union of the World v. Nabors,
The judgment will be reversed, and the cause remanded for a new trial.