Gutkowsky v. Grand Lodge, Progressive Order

The defendant contends “that Gutkowsky’s relation to the order at the time of his death was merely that of an applicant—one who had made a proposition for membership—who had applied for a contract of insurance which had not been accepted, not having been placed before the only authority in the order which could accept such a proposition for membership; that the society imposed, and had a right to impose, conditions precedent to membership and to insist upon them; that whatever right- the Grand Lodge might have by its own acts to waive any of these conditions precedent, the local lodge having…