614 CORPORAIIONS. [ART. 23

company, and in addition thereto, comply with the seven follow-
ing sections of this article for said mutual or co-operative
organisation; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be
construed to apply to the granting of relief or benefits to
members or their families by any societies of a purely and
exclusively religious, charitable or benevolent description, which
are not operated with a view to a profit by their officers or
members.

Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Dempsey, 72 Md. 293. Order Int. Frat. All.
v. State, 77 Md 564. Barton v. Fraternal Alliance, 85 Md. 30. Fraternal
Alliance v. State, 86 Md. 556-8. Md. Casualty Co. v. Gehrman, 96 Md. 648.

1888, art. 23, sec. 128. 1888, ch. 424. 1892, ch. 488. 1894, ch. 256.
1902, ch. 338.

176. Organizations, as described in section 175, issuing
certificates for the payment of money or other benefits in the
event of sickness, accident or death, or other contingency,
either to the member, policy certificate holder, or by whatso-
ever name the same may be known, or to their families or
representatives, but issuing no certificate, certificates or any
other form of contract of payment in the aggregate of a greater
sum than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00), upon the termina-
tion of any one life or combinations of lives, or a greater sum
than seventy-five dollars ($75.00) annually, or the equivalent
thereof, whether the payments be stipulated to be made annu-
ally, or at longer or at shorter intervals, upon any contract or
contracts of annuity in which the continuance of any one life,
whether singly or in connection with other lives conjointly or
in succession, or combined in any way whatsoever, or during
sickness or disability, is involved as an element of the contract,
may be formed on the mutual, co-operative, assessment or stock
plan; and if on the latter plan, shall have a paid-up capital of
at least fifty thousand dollars, and such companies, whether
formed on the mutual, co-operative, assessment or stock plan,
shall be possessed of and constantly maintain a sum of money
not less in amount than fifty thousand dollars, or in interest or
dividends-bearing securities of equal market value, and not in
default for interest or dividend, which shall be deposited with
the insurance commissioner of this State upon the terms pre-
scribed for the deposits made with the treasurer of this State,
mentioned in section 149 of this article; provided, that weekly
or monthly collection of industrial benefit societies of this
State, incorporated before the first day of January, 1898, and