IMPORTANT TO MEMBERS OF FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1163, 31 March 1874, Page 2

IMPORTANT TO MEMBERS OF FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

The Pall Mall Gazette of .a recent date says :—A decision of some imj portancc to members of burial societies has been given by the judge of the county court at Stourbri.lge, in the case of " The Executors of James Brown v. The Lily of the Valley Lodge of OddFellows," when the plaintiffs claimed the sum of £U lis 9d, the funeral money of the deceased, which money, having no widow, he had left by will to a distant relation. The society, admitted that the claim was due to some one, and the question for the judge to decide was, whether the money was duo to the executors, or to the brothers of the deceased; in fact whether a member

of any burial society could bequeath bis club money. The rules of the society provided that at the death of a member his widow or relative was to receive a certain pecuniary donation, and it was argued against the assertion of the claim to the funeral money on testamentary disposition, that the rules provided the means of disposing of the money by nominee. The judge decided that Uie money claimed was for ever vested interest, and by common law every vested interest might be subject to icstamentary disposal, and the fact that means were provided for disposing of the money by the rules of the society did not override the right of common law. He therefore held that the interests of members of benefit societies such as " The Lily of the Valley OddFellows " might be disposed of by will, and therefore gave judgment for the plaintiffs for the full amount. Considering how many difficulties men often have to contend with in spending the life income according to their own inclination, it certainly seems only just that they should be allowed to do what they like with the : r " funeral money."