INSURANCE. 1861

the votes, nor less than the votes required to amend its constitution and
laws; and provided further, that the meetings of the supreme or govern-
ing body, and the election of officers, representatives or delegates shall be
held as often as once in four years. The members, officers, representatives
or delegates of a fraternal beneficiary association shall not vote by proxy.

1922, ch. 492, sec. 146.

149. Exemptions. Except as herein provided, such association shall
be governed by this article and shall be exempt from all provisions of the
insurance laws of this state, not only in its governmental relations with the
state, but for every other purpose, and no law hereafter enacted shall apply
to them unless they be expressly designated therein.

1922, ch. 492, sec. 147.

150. Benefits. Every association transacting business under this article
shall provide for the payment of death benefits, and may provide for the
payment of benefits in case of temporary or permanent physical disability,
either as a result of disease, accident or old age; provided, the period of
life at which the payment of benefits for disability on account of old age
shall commence, shall not be more than seventy years; and may provide
for monuments or tombstones to the memory of its deceased members and
for the payment of funeral benefits. Such association shall have the power
to give a member, when permanently disabled or on attaining the age of
seventy, all or such portion of the face value of his certificate, as the laws
of the association may provide; provided, that nothing in this act con-

231. Cited but not construed in Himmel v. Eichengreen, 107 Md. 612; Supreme
Lodge v. Simering, 88 Md. 284; International Fraternal Alliance v. State, 86 Md. 552;
Barton v. International Fraternal Alliance, 85 Md. 31.

See notes to sec. 229 (this foot note).

232. Cited but not construed in Himmel v. Eichengreen, 107 Md. 612; Supreme
Lodge v. Simering, 88 Md. 284; International Fraternal Alliance v. State, 86 Md. 552;
Barton v. International Fraternal Alliance, 85 Md. 31.

See notes to sec. 829 (this foot note).

233. Cited but not construed in Himmel v. Eichengreen, 107 Md. 612; Supreme
Lodge v. Simering, 88 Md. 284; International Fraternal Alliance v. State, 86 Md. 552;
Barton v. International Fraternal Alliance, 85 Md. 31.

See notes to sec. 220 (this foot note).

234. The clause of this section providing that a beneficiary may be " a person or
persons dependent upon the member," held not to be limited in application to persons
legally or wholly dependent. A sister-in-law living at the member's home under lawful
circumstances, both of them contributing to the support of such home, may be a
beneficiary. Hunt v. Winkleman, 136 Md. 252.

Where a man names his wife as his beneficiary but they are subsequently divorced
a vinculo, she is not entitled to death benefits, since this section limits the payment
of such benefits to the wife, etc. The former wife asserted no claim on the ground of
dependency: Dittmaier v. Heptasophs, 135 Md. 315.

The purpose of this section is to define those having an insurable interest in the life
of another, and to discountenance wagering contracts. Where children (adopted prior
to the Maryland statute on the subject—art. 16, sec. 74, et seq.), are made the bene-
ficiaries under a certificate of insurance in a fraternal order, payment may be enforced,
although a by-law of the order passed subsequent to the membership of the decedent,
restricted payments to legally adopted children. Clayton v. Heptasophs, 130 Md. 37.

Cited but not construed in Himmel v. Eichengreen, 107 Md. 612; Supreme
Lodge v. Simering, 88 Md. 284; International Fraternal Alliance v. State, 86 Md. 552;
Barton v. International Fraternal Alliance, 85 Md. 31.

See notes to sec. 229 (this foot note).