Order of United Commercial Travelers of America v. Wolfe
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ORDER OF UNITED COMMERCIAL TRAVELERS OF AMERICA
v.
WOLFE.
Supreme Court of United States.
*588 Byron S. Payne and E.W. Dillon argued the cause on the original argument, and Mr. Dillon on the reargument, for petitioner. With them on the brief was Samuel Herrick.
Hubbard F. Fellows argued the cause and filed a brief for respondent.
MR. JUSTICE BURTON delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is an action in a circuit court of the State of South Dakota, brought by an Ohio citizen against a fraternal benefit society incorporated in Ohio, to recover benefits claimed to have arisen under the constitution of that society as a result of the death of an insured member who had been a citizen of South Dakota throughout his membership. The case presents the question whether the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution of the United States[1] required the court of the forum, South Dakota, to give effect to a provision of the constitution of the society prohibiting the bringing of an action on such a claim more than six months after the disallowance of the claim by the Supreme Executive Committee of the society,[2]*589 when that provision was valid under the law of the state of the society's incorporation, Ohio, but when the time prescribed generally by South Dakota for commencing actions on contracts was six years[3] and when another statute of South Dakota declared that
"Every stipulation or condition in a contract, by which any party thereto is restricted from enforcing his rights under the contract by the usual legal proceedings in the ordinary tribunals, or which limits the time within which he may thus enforce his rights, is void."[4]
We hold that, under such circumstances, South Dakota, as the state of the forum, was required, by the Constitution of the United States, to give full faith and credit to the public acts of Ohio under which the fraternal benefit society was incorporated, and that the claimant was bound by the six-month limitation upon bringing suit to recover death benefits based upon membership rights of a decedent under the constitution of the society. This has been the consistent view of this Court.[5]
The record in the present case well illustrates both the practical effect of such a limitation as that contained in the constitution of this society and the need for the application of the full faith and credit clause to membership obligations in fraternal benefit societies.
*590 The petitioner, The Order of United Commercial Travelers of America, was incorporated in 1888, under the general corporation laws of Ohio.[6] By 1920, when the decedent, Ford Shane, of Rapid City, South Dakota, became *591 a member, this fraternal benefit society was in active operation in many states. Then, and at his death in 1931, it was regulated in detail by the General Code of Ohio. That Code included public acts of Ohio on such subjects as the following: § 9462, Fraternal benefit society defined;[7] § 9463, Lodge system; § 9464, Representative form of government, including restrictions on amendments to its constitution; § 9465, Exemption from general insurance laws of the State; § 9466, Benefits; § 9467, To whom benefits shall be paid, stating limitations on the degrees of family relationship permitted to exist between a member and those whom he may designate to receive benefits as a result of his death; § 9468, Age limits for admission to membership; § 9469, Certificate shall constitute agreement;[8] § 9469-1, Exception as to commercial travelers;[9]*592 § 9470, Investment, disbursement and application of funds; § 9481, Laws of society shall be binding on members and beneficiaries, and the society may provide, as here, that no subordinate body, officers or members may waive any of the provisions of the laws and constitution of the society.[10] These public acts have created and regulated the society and the rights and obligations of its members. They are reflected in its articles of incorporation, constitution and by-laws. They make possible uniformity of rights and obligations among all members throughout the country, provided full faith and credit are given also to the constitution and by-laws of the society insofar as they are valid under the law of the state of incorporation. If full faith and credit are not given to these provisions, the mutual rights and obligations of the members of such societies are left subject to the control of each state. They become unpredictable and almost inevitably unequal.
The principal office of this society has been continuously in Columbus, Ohio. The society has established subordinate councils in many states and, at all times involved in this case, has been licensed to do business in South *593 Dakota as a foreign fraternal benefit society.[11] In accordance with the requirements for maintaining such license in good standing, the society has kept on file, with the Commissioner of Insurance of South Dakota, a copy of the society's constitution, including § 11 of Article IV, here *594 in controversy, limiting the time for bringing suits to recover claims for benefits based upon that Article. The state of the forum thus has been continuously in a position to revoke or refuse to renew the society's license to do business in that State if it had good reason to do so. There is no evidence that South Dakota has attempted or suggested such action. The favorable, rather than hostile, attitude of South Dakota towards such societies is evidenced by its own authorization of their incorporation in that State on terms identical, word for word, with those prescribed in Ohio.[12]
The decedent, on July 31, 1920, applied for membership in the society through Rapid City Council No. 516, in Rapid City, South Dakota. He was 37 years old, a manager and salesman selling "packing products" on the road, in good physical condition and employed in an occupation of precisely the type contemplated for membership in this society.[13] He named his wife as his beneficiary in case of *595 his death from accidental means. On August 19, 1920, he was accepted by the Supreme Council as an insured member of the society under "Class A." The certificate, No. 169655, evidencing this acceptance was executed at Columbus, Ohio, by the Supreme Counselor and Supreme Secretary. In 1922, following a brief suspension, he applied for reinstatement in what was then Black Hills Council No. 516 in Rapid City, South Dakota, and, on December 21, 1922, was reinstated as an insured member of the society under "Class A." In his application for this renewal, he referred to himself as a traveling salesman, selling meat to dealers, and named his mother, Elizabeth Shane of Mt. Vernon, South Dakota, as his beneficiary.[14]*596 Thereafter, he remained in good standing and it is upon his membership, evidenced by this certificate, also executed in Ohio, that this action depends. On May 8, 1931, he visited a physician's office in Rapid City, South Dakota, to be examined for stricture. The doctor applied a local anesthetic preliminary to introducing an instrument known as a "sound" for exploratory purposes. The local anesthetic was a drug known as "butyn." The record shows that butyn commonly was used by physicians for such a purpose; that it was properly administered in the usual and proper amount and was of the usual and proper strength; but that the decedent, unknown to anyone, was subject to a *597 rare idiosyncrasy, as a result of the presence of which he suffered convulsions immediately following the administration of the anesthetic and died within two minutes.
In accordance with the procedure prescribed in the constitution of the society, the decedent's beneficiary promptly mailed to the society a notice of her son's death. On June 8, 1931, the Supreme Executive Committee, in Columbus, Ohio, reviewed and disallowed her claim on its merits and mailed to her notice of such action. On June 16, she filed a complaint against the society in a circuit court for the State of South Dakota to recover death benefits, amounting to $6,300, claimed under Article IV of the constitution of the society. The case was removed to the United States District Court for South Dakota because of diversity of citizenship. On September 2 it was tried, without a jury, and, on December 15, 1931, judgment was rendered for the mother with findings of fact and conclusions of law dealing with the merits of the case. This judgment, on February 27, 1933, was reversed, on its merits, by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and judgment for costs was entered against Elizabeth Shane. 64 F.2d 55.[15] Upon remand *598 of the case to it, the District Court, on April 18, 1933, ordered "that the Judgment of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals in this matter be made the Judgment of this Court, and that all costs of this Court relating to such Mandate and Judgment, be taxed and allowed the defendant." (Unreported.) Thus, within less than two years, the case had been completely presented and heard by the District Court and the Circuit Court of Appeals and disposed of, on its merits, in favor of the society, with full recognition of the diversity of citizenship of the parties and in compliance with the time limits prescribed by the constitution of the society.
The present proceeding, however, resulted from the fact that, pursuant to stipulation of the parties, the District Court, on January 18, 1934, dismissed the case without prejudice to the filing of another suit. On June 15, 1934, the decedent's mother assigned her claim to Edward C. Wolfe, the present respondent, a citizen of Ohio, as trustee, to enforce collection of the claim. On the same day, the present action was filed in a circuit court of the State of South Dakota. An answer was entered and a stipulation was made to use the testimony which had been taken in the District Court in the previous case. There the case rested for six years. On October 19, 1940, an amended answer was filed raising, among others, the defense that this second action was in violation of the following Section of the constitution of the society: *599
"ARTICLE IV. INSURANCE.
.....
Waivers.
"SEC. 11. No suit or proceeding, either at law or in equity, shall be brought to recover any benefits under this Article after six (6) months from the date the claim for said benefits is disallowed by the Supreme Executive Committee.
"No Grand or Subordinate Council, officer, member or agent of any Subordinate, Grand, or the Supreme Council of the Order is authorized or permitted to waive any of the provisions of the Constitution of this Order, relating to insurance, as the same are now in force or may be hereafter enacted."
It is not disputed that such provision has been in such constitution since before the decedent's first application for membership in the society, and that it was printed in full on the back of the certificate of membership originally issued to the decedent. It further was alleged that this provision was valid and binding upon the members of the society by and under the laws of Ohio; that the highest court of that State had held that a fraternal benefit society, by its constitution and by-laws, could limit the time within which suit must be brought to recover for benefits promised to members; and that to deny the binding effect of that limitation on the plaintiff in such suit would be a violation of the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution of the United States (Art. IV. § 1), and a violation of the society's rights thereunder. We decide that issue here in favor of the society. No claim is made here that the society is barred from this defense by any waiver purporting to have been made on its behalf in connection with the dismissal of the earlier action without prejudice to filing another. See Riddlesbarger v. Hartford Ins. Co., *600 7 Wall. 386. In this view of the case, it is not necessary to consider the other defenses.
In 1942, the case was presented before a judge of a circuit court of the State of South Dakota. Upon the death of that judge before a decision in the case, it was heard, in 1943, by another judge of that court, largely upon the record made in 1931, in the United States District Court. The state court, on April 4, 1944, entered judgment in favor of the claimant, respondent herein. In 1945, the Supreme Court of the State of South Dakota, by a divided court, affirmed that judgment. 70 S.D. 452, 18 N.W.2d 755. Because of the constitutional issue presented and its relation to previous decisions of this Court, we granted certiorari. 326 U.S. 712. The case was argued here February 28, 1946. Later it was restored to the docket, assigned for reargument before a full bench and reargued here November 12, 1946.
This is a clear-cut case of a claim based solely upon membership rights and obligations contained in the constitution of an incorporated fraternal benefit society, the terms of which are subject to amendment through the processes of a representative form of government authorized by the law of the state of incorporation. There is no evidence in the records of the three trials, no suggestion in the opinions of the lower courts, and no claim in the arguments here that the decedent was not a bona fide active member of the society, or that the society was acting otherwise than as a fraternal benefit society. This case, therefore, is to be distinguished from a claim for death benefits under an ordinary contract of accident insurance, whether issued by a stock or a mutual insurance company.
We rely upon the character of the membership obligation sued upon. There is substantial evidence to support a contention that the contract of membership, including all insurance rights, was made in Ohio and that many *601 acts in connection with the contract were required to be performed in Ohio and were so performed. However, we do not rely upon the place of concluding the contract of membership or upon the place prescribed for its performance. We rely, rather, upon its character as something created, regulated and subject to change through a fraternal and representative form of intra-corporate government, dependent for its terms, continuity and unity upon public acts of Ohio creating and regulating fraternal benefit societies.
Although the respondent, suing as an Ohio citizen, has eliminated the South Dakota citizenship of the original beneficiary as a jurisdictional factor in this case, we do not hold that for that reason, he may not urge the courts to consider the continuous South Dakota residence and citizenship of the decedent and of the named beneficiary in determining whether the public policy of South Dakota should yield to the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution of the United States in giving recognition to the charter rights and obligations of the society as an Ohio corporation.
In order however to appreciate the nature of the obligation here relied upon, it is essential to see how completely its terms are interwoven with the enabling legislation authorizing the corporate charter and with the constitution and by-laws of the society, as well as with the member's application for and his certificate of membership in such society.
The enabling legislation corporate charter and certificate of membership have been described. The application for membership contributes nothing further to the issue except to emphasize the integration which it demonstrates between the member and the articles of incorporation, constitution and by-laws of his society. There was no application for insurance separate from the application *602 for membership. Benefits derived from membership flowed solely from the decedent's membership status.
There remain to be considered the constitution and by-laws of the society. These set forth the main body of the member's rights and obligations, including those of a fraternal and procedural nature as well as those relating to financial benefits and liabilities. The principal part of the record consists of printed copies of the charter, constitution and by-laws of the society, one as generally effective September 1, 1922, and the other as effective September 1, 1930. A comparison of these copies shows that many changes were made in the rights and obligations of members during the decedent's membership in the society.[16]
The 1930 constitution, in pamphlet form, filled 90 closely printed pages. Its subject matter is outlined in the margin.[17] It is obvious how vital these terms, both in detail and as a whole, were to each member. The by-laws filled six Pages. They consisted of 29 paragraphs *603 dealing with the conduct of meetings of the Subordinate (or local) Councils, Grand (or regional) Councils and the Supreme (national or international) Council. Under such a constitution it is impossible to separate the member's *604 insurance rights and obligations from his other rights and obligations. While the statute authorizing the incorporation of fraternal benefit societies calls for "a lodge system with ritualistic form of work" and this is a natural *605 expression of a close community of interest among members of a fraternal benefit society, yet it is not the formality of any ritual that is of primary significance from the legal point of view in this case. The more critical factors are that the society is a voluntary fraternal association "organized and carried on solely for the mutual benefit of its members and their beneficiaries, and not for profit, and having a . . . representative form of government, and which shall make provision for the payment of benefits" in accordance with certain statutory requirements.[18] Historically, many groups of people have been drawn together naturally into fraternal organizations for social and economic reasons. Some of these have developed into those forms of fraternal benefit societies now officially recognized by many states. The relationships between the members of such societies are contractual in that they are voluntarily undertaken in consideration of the like obligations of others. However, interwoven with their financial rights and obligations, they have other common interests incidental to their memberships, which give them a status toward one another that involves more mutuality of interest and more interdependence than arises *606 from purely business and financial relationships. This creates
"The indivisible unity between the members of a corporation of this kind in respect of the fund from which their rights are to be enforced and the consequence that their rights must be determined by a single law, . . . . The act of becoming a member is something more than a contract, it is entering into a complex and abiding relation, and as marriage looks to domicil, membership looks to and must be governed by the law of the State granting the incorporation."[19]
The relationship thus established between a member and his fraternal benefit society differs from the ordinary contractual relationship between a policyholder and a separately owned corporate or "stock" insurance company. It differs also from that between and insured member of the usual business form of a mutual insurance company and that company. The fact of membership in the Ohio fraternal benefit society is the controlling and central feature of the relationship. As long as he remains a member, the terms of his membership, including obligations and benefits relating to the insurance funds of the society, are subject to change without his individual consent. The control over those terms is vested by him and his fellow members in the elected representative government of their society as authorized and regulated by the law of Ohio. Upon that law the continued existence of the society depends. The foundation of the society is the law of Ohio. It provides the unifying control over the rights and obligations of its members. Sovereign Camp v. Bolin, 305 U.S. 66, 75, discussed infra. It is this dependence of membership rights upon the public acts of the domiciliary state, supported by the requirement that *607 full faith and credit shall be given in each state to those public acts, that has been recognized by this Court in the unbroken line of decisions reviewed in this opinion.
The decisions passing upon this comparatively narrow issue are to be distinguished from those which deal only with the well-established principle of conflict of laws that "If action is barred by the statute of limitations of the forum, no action can be maintained though action is not barred in the state where the cause of action arose." Restatement, Conflict of Laws § 603 (1934). It is to that general principle that such early cases as Hawkins v. Barney's lessee, 5 Pet. 457, and M'Elmoyle v. Cohen, 13 Pet. 312, have reference. The decisions here reviewed are to be distinguished, likewise, from those supporting the converse general principle that "If action is not barred by the statute of limitations of the forum, an action can be maintained, though action is barred in the state where the cause of action arose." Restatement, Conflict of Laws § 604 (1934). Neither of these general statements is here questioned. An obvious need for modification of the latter statement, however, has led many states to place a limitation upon it through the adoption of the so-called "borrowing statutes" of limitations. The result is that today "Statutes frequently provide that an action may not be maintained if it has been barred by the statute of limitations at the place where the action accrued or, in some cases, at the domicil of the defendant." Id. § 604, comment b. These numerous "borrowing statutes" demonstrate the general recognition of the sound public policy of limiting, under some circumstances, the application of the general statute of limitations of the state of the forum. The full faith and credit clause applied, as in the present case, is but another limitation voluntarily imposed, by the people of the United States, upon the sovereignty of their respective states in applying the law of the forum. See Broderick v. Rosner, 294 U.S. 629, 643, and Milwaukee *608 County v. White Co., 296 U.S. 268, 276-277, discussed infra.
Even without the compelling force of statutory or constitutional provisions, the courts have recognized other restrictions on the law of the forum. For example, it is well established that, in the absence of a controlling statute to the contrary, a provision in a contract may validly limit between the parties, the time for bringing an action on such contract to a period less than that prescribed in the general statute of limitations, provided that the shorter period itself shall be a reasonable period.[20] Such shorter periods, written into private contracts, also have been held to be entitled to the constitutional protection of the Fourteenth Amendment under appropriate circumstances. See Home Ins. Co. v. Dick, 281 U.S. 397, and Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Delta & Pine Land Co., 292 U.S. 143, mentioned again infra.
The instant case presents additional facts which distinguish it from the cases governed by the foregoing general rules. The principal distinguishing feature of this case is the membership of the decedent in the Ohio fraternal benefit society, which South Dakota made available to him through the license issued to it to do business in South Dakota. Even conceding, for purposes of argument, *609 that the decedent's membership contract was entered into in South Dakota, rather than where it was accepted at the society's home office in Ohio, it is the character of that fraternal benefit membership, created and defined by the laws of Ohio and fostered by the fraternal benefit laws of South Dakota, that is at issue. Conceding further that, as interpreted in this case by the Supreme Court of South Dakota, the provision of § 897 of the South Dakota Code (quoted near the beginning of this opinion), generally outlawing contractual time limits on the enforcement of contractual rights by legal proceedings, is an attempt to make void the time limit included in § 11 of Article IV of the constitution of this Ohio fraternal benefit society, we then are brought face to face with the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution of the United States. It is here that we reach the line of decisions of this Court, extending from Royal Arcanum v. Green, 237 U.S. 531, to Pink v. A.A.A. Highway Express, 314 U.S. 201, 207-208, 210-211, discussed infra. These decisions are directly in point. Without questioning this Court's recognition of the common law principle of conflict of laws as to the control by each state over the application of its own statutes of limitations, this line of decisions demonstrates this Court's simultaneous recognition of the necessary scope of the full faith and credit clause in this field. These cases unwaveringly safeguard, in each state, the effectiveness of the public acts of every other state as expressed in the rights and obligations of members of fraternal benefit societies. Such societies exist by virtue of such state legislation, and the rights and obligations incident to membership therein are as much entitled to full faith and credit as the statutes upon which they depend.
The respondent's claim to benefits is based upon Item (12) of § 4 of Article IV of this constitution which specifies *610 the death benefits derived from the membership of "Class A" members. The prohibition limiting the time for suing on this claim, which is relied upon as the defense of the society, appears as § 11 of the same Article IV. Section 11 deals with the decedent's membership relationship to the society no less than does § 4. The limitation, resulting from § 4, on the amount of the benefit to be paid to beneficiaries and the limitation, resulting from § 11, on the time when litigation may be brought by beneficiaries, are of comparable character. To permit recovery here would be to permit recovery on a special and unauthorized type of membership more favorable to decedent than was available to other members. This would fail to give full faith and credit to the terms of membership authorized by Ohio by placing an additional liability on the society beyond that authorized by Ohio or accepted by the society.
Underlying the defense of the society is the requirement that § 11 be valid under the law of Ohio as the State of incorporation. Such validity was admitted by the Supreme Court of South Dakota in its opinion below. 70 S.D. 452, 18 N.W.2d 755, 756. "The parties to a contract of insurance may, by a provision inserted in the policy, lawfully limit the time within which suit may be brought thereon, provided the period of limitation fixed be not unreasonable." Appel v. Cooper Ins. Co., 76 Ohio St. 52 (Syllabus, No. 1, by the court), 80 N.E. 955. The court there enforced a clause in a fire insurance policy providing that no action for recovery of any claim shall be sustainable in any court unless commenced within six months after the fire itself, even though such actions were prohibited during most of the first three of those six months. In Bartley v. National Business Men's Assn., 109 Ohio St. 585, 143 N.E. 386, the Supreme Court of Ohio approved the Appel case and applied it to a two-year *611 contractual limitation for suing an Ohio mutual protective association on a claim for accidental death. See also: Modern Woodmen v. Myers, 99 Ohio St. 87, 124 N.E. 48, upholding a strict adherence to limitations stated in the by-laws of fraternal benefit societies; Portage County Mutual Fire Ins. Co. v. West, 6 Ohio St. 599, emphasizing the reasonableness of short periods for commencing suits on claims against mutual companies; Young v. Order of United Commercial Travelers, 142 Neb. 566, 7 N.W.2d 81, recognizing the validity in Ohio of the precise provision of the constitution of the society here at issue, and sustaining its effectiveness in Nebraska by force of the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution of the United States; and Roberts v. Modern Woodmen, 133 Mo. App. 207, 113 S.W. 726, sustaining, in Missouri, a one-year limitation in the insurance contract of an Illinois fraternal benefit society, in the face of a contrary local policy as to Missouri contracts limiting the time within which suits may be instituted. See also, Riddlesbarger v. Hartford Ins. Co., 7 Wall. 386.
Starting with the recognized validity under the law of Ohio, of Article IV, § 11 of the constitution of the petitioning society, that society has a complete defense to the present action unless such § 11 is not enforcible in the courts of South Dakota because of a contrary public policy of that State. We examine first the claim that such a contrary policy exists, and then show why, on the principles established by this Court, the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution of the United States requires the courts of South Dakota to give effect to the public acts of Ohio as expressed in such § 11.
The general statutes of limitations which have been in effect in South Dakota throughout the period involved in this case have prescribed limits varying from 20 years *612 to one year according to the subject of the action.[21] "An action upon a contract, obligation or liability, express or implied," was required to be commenced within six years.[22] On the other hand the State required the insertion in every health or accident policy issued in the State, a standard contractual provision limiting to two years the time for bringing an action upon it.[23] Throughout this period, the South Dakota statutes, moreover, have expressed no hostility toward domestic or foreign fraternal benefit societies. In fact, they have provided for the incorporation, licensing and supervision of such societies in terms closely comparable to those of the statutes of Ohio.[24]
Both the alleged prohibition by South Dakota of such a contractual limitation as is contained in § 11 and the public policy of South Dakota against such limitations depend entirely upon its statute directed generally against contractual limitations upon rights to sue on contracts *613 which is quoted, supra, from § 897 of the Revised Code of South Dakota, 1919.[25]
The public policy so declared is not directed specifically against fraternal benefit societies or their insurance membership requirements. In this very case, however, the Supreme Court of South Dakota, in its decision below, expressly held that this statute applies to and renders void in South Dakota § 11 of Article IV of this society's constitution. We thus are confronted with an inescapable issue as to the unconstitutionality of an attempt, through this statute, to declare void in South Dakota a provision of the constitution of an incorporated fraternal benefit society which comes within the authorization of a public act of the State of Ohio and is valid under the laws of that State. This is not a new issue in this Court. It falls squarely within a line of decisions consistently upholding the applicability of the full faith and credit clause in support of comparable provisions in the constitution of such a society.
In Royal Arcanum v. Green, 237 U.S. 531, Mr. Chief Justice White, writing on behalf of a unanimous Court, pointed out that the full faith and credit clause there required the state of the forum (New York) to give effect to a law of the state of incorporation (Massachusetts) pursuant to which a fraternal benefit society had amended its constitution so as to increase the assessment rate upon the complaining members, although the trial court had found that their contract of membership was entered into, made and completed in the State of New York, and that under the law of that State, the member would not be bound by *614 such increase. 206 N.Y. 591, 597, 100 N.E. 411, 412. In terms which have not been overruled or modified by it in later decisions this Court there explained why the full faith and credit clause requires controlling effect to be given to the law of the state of incorporation in interpreting and determining the enforcibility of the rights and obligations of members contained in the constitution and by-laws of such societies. It said:
". . ., as the charter was a Massachusetts charter and the constitution and by-laws were a part thereof, adopted in Massachusetts, having no other sanction than the laws of that State, it follows by the same token that those laws were integrally and necessarily the criterion to be resorted to for the purpose of ascertaining the significance of the constitution and by-laws. Indeed, the accuracy of this conclusion is irresistibly manifested by considering the intrinsic relation between each and all the members concerning their duty to pay assessments and the resulting indivisible unity between them in the fund from which their rights were to be enjoyed. The contradiction in terms is apparent which would rise from holding on the one hand that there was a collective and unified standard of duty and obligation on the part of the members themselves and the corporation, and saying on the other hand that the duty of members was to be tested isolatedly and individually by resorting not to one source of authority applicable to all but by applying many divergent, variable and conflicting criteria. In fact their destructive effect has long since been recognized. Gaines v. Supreme Council of the Royal Arcanum, 140 Fed. Rep. 978; Royal Arcanum v. Brashears, 89 Maryland, 624. And from this it is certain that when reduced to their last analysis the contentions relied upon in effect destroy the rights which they are advanced to support, since an *615 assessment which was one thing in one State and another in another, and a fund which was distributed by one rule in one State and by a different rule somewhere else, would in practical effect amount to no assessment and no substantial sum to be distributed. It was doubtless not only a recognition of the inherent unsoundness of the proposition here relied upon, but the manifest impossibility of its enforcement which has led courts of last resort of so many States in passing on questions involving the general authority of fraternal associations and their duties as to subjects of a general character concerning all their members to recognize the charter of the corporation and the laws of the State under which it was granted as the test and measure to be applied." Id. at 542-543.
In Modern Woodmen v. Mixer, 267 U.S. 544, this Court unanimously followed the same reasoning and Mr. Justice Holmes, in language previously quoted supra, emphasized the "complex and abiding relation" of a membership in a fraternal benefit society. He said, "as marriage looks to domicil, membership looks to and must be governed by the law of the State granting the incorporation." Id. at 551. In that case, the Court held that the full faith and credit clause required the state of the forum (Nebraska) to give effect to the law of the state of incorporation (Illinois) pursuant to which a by-law of the fraternal benefit society had been enacted requiring that the continued absence of any member, although unheard from for ten years, should not give his beneficiary the right to recover death benefits until the full term of the member's expectancy of life had expired. This was so held in the face of a rule of law in the state of the forum that seven years of unexplained absence was sufficient to establish death for purposes of such a recovery. This Court stated that neither the public policy of the forum nor the opinion of the Supreme Court of that State that the by-law was *616 unreasonable, nor the fact that the membership contract had been made in South Dakota, nor the fact that the by-law itself had been adopted several years after the membership relation had commenced, could affect this result. This Court said:
"We need not consider what other States may refuse to do, but we deem it established that they cannot attach to membership rights against the Company that are refused by the law of the domicil. It does not matter that the member joined in another State." Id. at 551.
In Broderick v. Rosner, 294 U.S. 629, this Court, with Mr. Justice Cardozo noting dissent, applied this principle to a suit brought in a New Jersey court against certain citizens of New Jersey to recover unpaid assessments levied upon them as stockholders in a bank incorporated under the laws of New York. A New Jersey statute sought to prohibit, in the courts of New Jersey, proceedings for the enforcement of any stockholder's statutory personal liability imposed by the laws of another state, except in suits for equitable accounting, to which the corporation, its legal representatives, and all of its creditors and stockholders were to be necessary parties. Practically, this amounted to an attempt to bar such suits from the New Jersey courts. This Court, however, said "It is sufficient to decide that, since the New Jersey courts possess general jurisdiction of the subject matter and the parties, and the subject matter is not one as to which the alleged public policy of New Jersey could be controlling, the full faith and credit clause requires that this suit be entertained [without compliance with the special New Jersey statute]." Id. at 647.
Mr. Justice Brandeis, in stating the reasoning of the Court in the Broderick case, said:
". . . the full faith and credit clause does not require the enforcement of every right which has ripened into *617 a judgment of another State or has been conferred by its statutes. See Bradford Electric Light Co. v. Clapper, 286 U.S. 145, 160; Alaska Packers Assn. v. Industrial Accident Comm'n, ante, p. 532, at p. 546. But the room left for the play of conflicting policies is a narrow one. . . . For the States of the Union, the constitutional limitation imposed by the full faith and credit clause abolished, in large measure, the general principle of international law by which local policy is permitted to dominate rules of comity.
"Here the nature of the cause of action brings it within the scope of the full faith and credit clause. The statutory liability sought to be enforced is contractual in character. The assessment is an incident of the incorporation. Thus the subject matter is peculiarly within the regulatory power of New York, as the State of incorporation. `So much so,' as was said in Converse v. Hamilton, 224 U.S. 243, 260, `that no other State properly can be said to have any public policy thereon. . . .' . . . In respect to the determination of liability for an assessment, the New Jersey stockholders submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of New York. For `the act of becoming a member [of a corporation] is something more than a contract, it is entering into a complex and abiding relation, and as marriage looks to domicil, membership looks to and must be governed by the law of the State granting the incorporation.' Modern Woodmen of America v. Mixer, 267 U.S. 544, 551."[26]Id. at 642-644.
*618 In Milwaukee County v. White Co., 296 U.S. 268, Mr. Justice Stone, speaking for the Court, said:
"The very purpose of the full faith and credit clause was to alter the status of the several states as independent foreign sovereignties, each free to ignore obligations created under the laws or by the judicial proceedings of the others, and to make them integral parts of a single nation throughout which a remedy upon a just obligation might be demanded as of right, irrespective of the state of its origin." Id. at 276-277.
In Sovereign Camp