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28 D. C. App., 200; 26 D.C.App.,

Subchapter XII.—FRATERNAL BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATIONS.

Sec. 749. DEFINED.-A fraternal beneficial association 160:27 D.C. App., is hereby declared to be a corporation, society, order, or 383; 13 D.C.App.; voluntary association, formed or organized and carried 245; 3 D. C. App., on for the sole benefit of its members and their beneficia308; 6 D. C. App., 201; 29 Stat., 630; ries, and not for profit, having a lodge system with ritual30 L. R., 103; 34 istic form of work and representative form of government,

L. R., 261.

making provision for the payment of benefits in case of death. Each such association may make provision for the payment of benefits in case of sickness, temporary or permanent physical disability, either as a result of disease, accident, or old age: Provided, That the period in life at which physical disability benefits on account of old age commences shall not be under seventy years, or the age of expectancy from the time of entering, subject to their compliance with its laws. Any such association may create and maintain a reserve, emergency or benefit fund in accordance with its laws. Any such association having a reserve, emergency or benefit fund may, in addition to the benefits herein before named, pay withdrawal benefits, not exceeding the contributions of such member, to a member unable or unwilling to continue membership, provided such membership shall continue not less than three successive years. Such association may also, after ten years of membership, apply its funds and accumulations as its laws provide or the association and members agree. The fund from which the payments of such benefits shall be made and the fund from which the expenses of such association shall be defrayed shall be derived from assessments, dues, and other payments collected from its members or otherwise. Payment of death benefits shall be to the families, heirs, blood relatives, affianced husband or affianced wife of or to persons dependent upon the member. Such association shall be governed by this subchapter, and shall be exempt from the provisions of insurance laws of the United States relating to the District of Columbia, and no law hereafter passed shall apply to them unless they be expressly designated therein: Provided, however, That the fact that any such association has outstanding agreements with its members for the payment of benefits other than those herein before specified, if it is making no new contracts of that character and is retiring those already existing, shall not exclude such association from the operation of this subchapter.

Sec. 750. EXISTING ASSOCIATIONS.-All such associations coming within the description as set forth in section seven hundred and forty-nine of this subchapter, organized under the laws of the United States relating to said District, or of any State, country, province, or Territory, and now doing business in said District, may continue such business: Provided, That they hereafter comply with the provisions of this subchapter regulating annual reports and the designation of the superintendent of insurance of

said District, provided for in subchapter five of this chapter, as the person upon whom process may be served as hereinafter provided.

Sec. 751. NONRESIDENT ASSOCIATIONS.-Any such association coming within the description as set forth in section seven hundred and forty-nine of this subchapter, organized under the laws of any State, country, province, or Territory, and not now doing business in said District, shall be admitted to do business within said District when it shall have filed with the superintendent of insurance a duly certified copy of its charter and articles of association and a copy of its by-laws, certified to by its secretary or corresponding officer, together with an appointment of the said superintendent as the person upon whom process may be served as hereinafter provided: Provided, That such association shall be shown to be authorized to do business in the State, country, province, or Territory in which it is incorporated or organized, in case the laws of such State, country, province, or Territory shall provide for such authorization; and in case the laws of such State, country, province, or Territory do not provide for any formal authorization to do business on the part of any such association, then such association shall be shown to be conducting its business in accordance with the provisions of this subchapter; for which purpose the said superintendent may personally, or by some person to be designated by him, examine into the condition, affairs, character, and business methods, accounts, books, and investments of such association at its home office, which examination shall be at the expense of such association and shall be made within thirty days after demand therefor, and the expense of such examination shall be limited to fifty dollars. Any association doing business under this subchapter shall be permitted to do business upon filing annually with the superintendent of insurance the certificate of authority of the insurance department of the State, Province, or Territory in which it is incorporated or organized: Provided, however, That in case of failure to file said certificate by any such association, or in case the superintendent of insurance shall deem it necessary, he shall have power, either personally or by some person designated by him, to examine into the condition, affairs, character, business methods, accounts, books, and investments of such association, at its home office, which examination shall be at the expense of the association. The amount of such expense shall not exceed one hundred dollars for associations which have no reserve or emergency fund and two hundred dollars for associations with a reserve or emergency fund.

Sec. 752. ANNUAL REPORTS.-Every such association doing business in said District shall, on or before the first day of March of each year, make and file with the said superintendent a report of its affairs and operations during the year ending on the thirty-first day of December

immediately preceding, which annual report shall be in lieu of all other reports required by any other law. Such report shall be upon blank forms to be provided by the said superintendent, or may be printed in pamphlet form, and shall be verified under oath by the duly authorized officers of such association, and shall be published, or the substance thereof, in the annual report of the said superintendent under a separate part entitled "Fraternal Beneficial Associations," and shall contain answers to the following questions:

First. Number of certificates issued during the year or members admitted.

Second. Amount of indemnity effected thereby.

Third. Number of losses or benefit liabilities incurred. Fourth. Number of losses or benefit liabilities paid. Fifth. The amount received from each assessment for the year.

Sixth. Total amount paid members, beneficiaries, legal representatives, or heirs.

Seventh. Number and kind of claims for which assessments have been made.

Eighth. Number and kind of claims compromised or resisted, and brief statement of reasons.

Ninth. Does the association charge annual or other periodical dues or admission fees?

Tenth. If so, how much on each one thousand dollars, annually or per capita, as the case may be?

Eleventh. Total amount received, from what source, and the disposition thereof.

Twelfth. Total amount of salaries paid to officers.

Thirteenth. Does the association guarantee in its certificates fixed amounts to be paid regardless of amount realized from assessments, dues, admission fees, and donations?

Fourteenth. If so, state amount guaranteed and the security of such guaranty.

Fifteenth. Has the association a reserve or emergency fund?

Sixteenth. If so, how is it created, and for what purpose, the amount thereof, and how invested?

Seventeenth. Has the association more than one class? Eighteenth. If so, how many; and the amount of indemnity in each case.

Nineteenth. Number of members in each class.

Twentieth. If voluntary, so state; and give date of organization.

Twenty-first. If organized under the laws of said District, under what law and at what time, giving chapter and year, and date of passage of the act.

Twenty-second. If organized under the laws of any State, country, province, or Territory, state such fact and the date of organization, giving chapter and year, and date of passage of the act.

Twenty-third. Number of certificates of beneficial membership lapsed during the year.

Twenty-fourth. Number in force at beginning and end of year; if more than one class, number in each class. Twenty-fifth. Names and addresses of its president, secretary, and treasurer, or corresponding officers.

Sec. 753. NONRESIDENT ASSOCIATIONS TO NAME AN ATTORNEY IN THE DISTRICT.-Each such association now doing or hereafter admitted to do business within said District, and not having its principal office within said District, and not being organized under the laws of the United States relating to said District, shall appoint, in writing, the said superintendent and his successors in office to be its true and lawful attorney, upon whom all lawful process in any action or proceeding against it may be served, and in such writing shall agree that any lawful process against it which is served on said attorney shall be of the same legal force and validity as if served upon the association, and that the authority shall continue in force so long as any liability remains outstanding in said District. Copies of said certificate certified by said. superintendent shall be deemed sufficient evidence thereof, and shall be admitted in evidence with the same force and effect as the original thereof might be admitted. Service upon such attorney shall be deemed sufficient service upon such association. When legal process against such association is served upon said superintendent he shall immediately notify the association of such service by letter, prepaid and directed to its secretary or corresponding officer, and shall, within two days after such service, forward in the same manner a copy of the process served on him to such officer. The plaintiff in such process so served shall pay to the said superintendent at the time of such service a fee of three dollars, which shall be recovered by him as a part of the taxable costs if he prevails in his suit. The said superintendent shall keep a record of all processes served upon him, which record shall show the day and hour when such service was made.

Sec. 754. PERMIT FROM SUPERINTENDENT OF INSURANCE. The said superintendent shall, upon the application of any association having the right to do business within said District, as provided by this subchapter, issue to such association a permit in writing authorizing such association to do business within said District, for which certificate and all proceedings in connection therewith such association shall pay the said superintendent the fee of five dollars.

Sec. 755. CERTIFICATE OF ORGANIZATION; TRUSTEES.Any nine or more persons, at least one-third of whom shall be residents of the District of Columbia, being desirous of forming a fraternal beneficial association for the purposes set forth in section seven hundred and fortynine of this subchapter, may associate themselves together and effect such organization as hereinafter prescribed, and not otherwise. Such persons shall make,

sign, and acknowledge before any officer authorized to take the acknowledgment of deeds in this District and file in the office of the recorder of deeds of said District a certificate or declaration in writing, to be recorded in a book kept for that purpose and open to public inspection, in which shall be stated the name or title by which said association shall be known to law; the mode and manner in which the corporate powers granted by this subchapter are to be exercised; the name or official title of the officers, trustees, representatives, or other persons by whatever name or title designated, who are to have and exercise the general control and management of its affairs; the place of doing business defined; the limit as to age of applicants for beneficial membership, which shall not exceed fiftyfive years, and that medical examinations are required of applicants for life benefits, together with the sworn statement by three of said corporators that at least one hundred persons eligible under the proposed laws of such association to membership therein have in good faith made application in writing for membership. The recorder of deeds, upon the filing of said declaration, shall deliver to such association a certified copy of the papers so filed and recorded in his office, together with a certificate to such association, stating that the provisions of this subchapter relative to incorporation have been complied with and that said association becomes thereby authorized to carry on the work of a fraternal beneficial association. Upon filing the certificate or declaration as aforesaid, the persons who shall have signed and acknowledged the same, and their successors and associates, shall, by the provisions of this subchapter, be a body politic and corporate by the name and style stated in the certificate, and by that name and style shall have perpetual succession, and by said name may sue and be sued, and may have and use a common seal, and the same may alter and change at pleasure, and may make and alter, at. times or from time to time, such laws, not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States or the laws in force in said District, as they may deem necessary for the government of said association. And they and their successors, by their corporate name, shall in law be capable of creating, maintaining, and disbursing a reserve or emergency fund in accordance with its laws and the provisions of this subchapter, and of taking, receiving, purchasing, and holding real and personal estate necessary for the purpose of such association, and may let, place out at interest, or sell and convey the same as may seem most beneficial for said association. The association shall elect from its members trustees, directors, or managers, by whatever title known in its laws, at such time and place and in such manner as may be specified in its laws, who shall have the control and management of the affairs and funds of said association, a majority of whom shall be a quorum for the transaction

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