After his military stint, he attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, lived at home, and kept the books for his father, Derrick Bell Sr., who ran a trash-collection business.
Trang 1landlord, who had ignored her requests for months, that she refused to pay the rent unless
he fixed the stairs A few days later, the landlord fixed their steps—and all the other broken steps on their road Bell’s interpretation of the event? “Good things happen when you push.”
Bell has also said that he carries his father’s
“dignified suspicion” of whites in hard-time Pittsburgh and his mother’s homespun concep-tion of a rights-based economy of self-respecting agitation
The eldest of four children, Bell earned a bachelor of arts degree and an Air Force commission when he graduated from Duquesne University in 1952, and then he served in the
KOREAN WAR While in the Air Force, Bell made his first discreet push for racial equality: he complained to the commanding officer at a base
in Louisiana about black soldiers having to sit in the back of the bus whenever they left base
After his military stint, he attended the University
of Pittsburgh School of Law, lived at home, and kept the books for his father, Derrick Bell Sr., who ran a trash-collection business Bell was elected as the associate editor-in-chief for the PittsburghLAW REVIEW, a prestigious position for a student to hold
at any law school He competed strenuously in law school and has admitted to being “a little obnoxious” in his attempt to succeed in an otherwise all-white class: in the yearbook, under-neath his picture, the following description is given: “Knows everything and wants others to know he knows everything.”
After graduating fourth in his class and being admitted to the District of Columbia bar
in 1957, Bell applied to a top local law firm, which had asked the law school to send over its best students.“When I walked in, there were all these gasps,” he said “It was like a line of heart attacks down the hall.” Bell did not get the job, but he did go on to become one of only three black attorneys at the U.S Department of Justice after being assigned to the Civil Rights Division His first professional act of defiance came in 1959, when he quit his job at theJUSTICE DEPARTMENTin protest after being told to give up his membership in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which the Justice Department considered a
CONFLICT OF INTEREST Bell returned to Pittsburgh and although he had passed the Pennsylvania bar, he accepted the position of executive secretary of the NAACP’s Pittsburgh branch A year later he
was recruited by its then-director, THURGOOD MARSHALL, to join the staff of the NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUNDto champion the cause of racial equality After starting as the executive secretary for the Pittsburgh branch of the Defense Fund, Bell was promoted to first assistant counsel at the New York City branch, where he remained from 1960 to 1966 While working as a civil rights lawyer, he confronted many difficult people and situations—from judges predisposed to RULING against his black clients to segregated public buildings During this time, Bell spent a night in jail in Mississippi for refusing to leave a train station’s “whites-only” waiting room He oversaw 300 SCHOOL DESEGREGATIONcases and played a central role in gettingJAMES MEREDITH, a black student, admitted
to the all-white University of Mississippi, despite the resistance of Governor Ross Barnett
“Down South, I learned a lot It just seems that unless something’s pushed, unless you litigate or protest, nothing happens,” Bell said
In 1966 Bell was admitted to the New York bar From 1966 to 1968, he served as deputy director of the U.S Department of Health, Education, and Welfare’s Office for Civil Rights
In 1968 he moved to California and became the executive director of the Western Center of Law and Poverty, at the University of Southern California (USC) He passed the California bar
in 1969 and taught law as an adjunct professor
at USC’s law center
After the 1968 ASSASSINATION of Dr MARTIN LUTHER KINGJr and inner-city riots, Bell received
a number of offers to teach law, including one from Harvard He accepted Harvard’s offer and lectured there from 1969 to 1971, after telling the school that he was willing to be the first black there but not the last In 1971, after Bell challenged the school to vote on his tenure,
he became the law school’s first tenured African American faculty member, a position
he kept until December 1980 During his tenure, he wrote several articles and the text, Race, Racism and American Law (1973; 4th ed
in 2000)
Bell left Harvard in January 1981 to become
a professor and the dean of the University of Oregon School of Law He resigned from there
in 1985, when the school refused to back his decision to offer a tenure-line position to an Asian American woman The same year, he published the foreword in the Harvard Law
CIVIL RIGHTS
CAM-PAIGNS AIMED AT
CHANGING THE RULES
WITHOUT AFFECTING
THE UNDERLYING
STATUS QUO
—D ERRICK B ELL J R
8 BELL, DERRICK ALBERT, JR.
Trang 2Review, “The Civil Rights Chronicles.” In 1996
the Society of American Law Teachers named
him Teacher of the Year
After leaving Oregon, Bell spent a semester
the next year as a visiting professor at Stanford
Law School, where, once again, he found
himself mired in controversy—this time for
his revisionist teaching of CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
Some Stanford law students, who disliked Bell’s
interpretation of the Constitution, pressured
the faculty into offering supplemental lectures
from other professors Shortly before the first of
these additional lectures, Stanford’s Black Law
Student Association staged a protest, and the
administration made a formal apology to Bell
In the fall of 1986 Bell returned to Harvard
to teach law He soon was caught up—yet
again—in racial discord During commencement
exercises in May of 1987, he staged a four-day
round-the-clock sit-in inside his office to
protest the denial of tenure to two members
of theCRITICAL LEGAL STUDIESmovement, a leftist
movement that challenges the basic tenets of
LEGAL EDUCATION and scholarship Also in 1987,
Bell’s alter ego, Geneva Crenshaw, who had
first come to life in his Harvard Law School
foreword, became the heroine in the pages of
his book And We Are Not Saved At the fulcrum
of this collection of ten allegorical tales was
the contention that racism is an immutable,
permanent problem in U.S society; Bell used
Socratic dialogues between himself, as narrator,
and Crenshaw, a black civil rights lawyer, to
measure the“progress” of blacks sinceBROWN V
BOARD OF EDUCATION, 349 U.S 294, 75 S Ct 753,
99 L Ed 1083 (1955) Further, in 1987, Bell
spoke out in support of Justice Thurgood
Marshall, whose minority report that year had
criticized the Constitution and blacks’ “token
presence” in the bicentennial celebrations: “We
need more candor about why the
Constitu-tion was written the way it was and what still
needs to be done to insure individual rights,”
said Bell
The following year, Bell wrote Civil Rights
in Two Thousand Four: Where Will We Be? Also
in 1988, he wrote a scathing indictment of
Harvard Law’sAFFIRMATIVE ACTIONperformance;
his article, published in 1989 by the Michigan
Law Review, gave a fictional account of how
Harvard came to hire more minorities only after
the school’s black faculty and the university
president were killed in a terrorist bombing
Bell was privately criticized for having dared to paint a grisly portrait of the president of Harvard being blown to pieces Robert C Clark,
a professor at Harvard and a future dean of the school, objected to Bell’s many protests, saying,
“This is a university, not a lunch counter in the Deep South.” “In its own way, this law school is
as much in need of reform as the lunch counters
of the South, although in a far more subtle way,” said Bell Clark later apologized and spoke
of sharing Bell’s goal of building a diverse faculty
Bell’s dissension at Harvard came to a head
in the spring of 1990, when Professor Regina Austin was denied tenure at the law school In early April, students on 50 law campuses boycotted classes in a call for more minority teachers; later that month, Bell announced that
he would step down—and forgo his $100,000 annual salary—until a black or other minority woman was considered for tenure Of the school’s sixty-five full-time professors at the time, five were white women and five were black men
Bell’s position was that qualified persons of color were not getting through an obsolete and irrelevant tenure-granting process, despite their qualifications and the valuable perspective they could provide law students He said the traditional checklist for tenure—Was the can-didate at the top of his or her law class? an editor on law review? someone with prestigious clerkships?—must be made more flexible when considering minority professors “The tradi-tional way of doing legal scholarship doesn’t
do justice to our experience,” said Bell “But minorities who are trying to blaze new trails
in legal academia are meeting opposition and silencing.” Comparing Bell to Rosa Parks—a black woman who refused to sit in the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955—the Reverend JESSE JACKSON offered in May 1990 to mediate between the school and Bell Harvard turned down the offer
Many observers marveled at the public attention attracted by Bell’s dramatic move at Harvard—among them, Richard H Chused, professor of the Georgetown University Law Center, who in 1989 published an empirical study demonstrating the lack of diversity within law school faculties, and Nathaniel R Jones, judge for the federal Ninth CIRCUIT COURT of Appeals and a part-time Harvard Law instructor
BELL, DERRICK ALBERT, JR 9
Trang 3Not all of Bell’s colleagues agreed with this form
of protest, however Professor Charles Fried, of Harvard Law, called Bell “off his head,” and others termed him “counterproductive.” Dean Clark continued to assert that Harvard should make appointments based on merits and not because of protests
Bell’s struggle with Harvard may not have been entirely for naught: in September 1992, Dean Clark acknowledged bitter divisions within the school and created a working group of faculty, students, and staff to improve the level of civility and community and to foster discussion
of issues that had shaken the institution And in June 1993, Harvard granted tenure to its seventh black law professor, Charles Ogletree
In the early 2000s, Bell continued to be a prolific writer In addition to publishing other books, such as Confronting Authority: Reflections
of An Ardent Protestor (1994), Constitutional Conflicts (1997), Afrolantica Legacies (1998), and Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning and Worth (2002), he is also the author of a foreword in Critical Race Feminism: A Reader
Bell’s articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Christian Science Monitor,
as well as Essence and Mother Jones magazine
Since 1991 Bell has been a visiting professor
at New York University Law School He has written commentary for a number of legal journals including those of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and the University of Michigan Bell continues to lecture around the country and to comment on legal issues on radio and television programs His book Silent Covenants: Brown V
Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform was published in 2004 by Oxford University Press
FURTHER READINGS
“Action of Harvard’s Prof Bell Focuses Attention on Diversity ” 1990 National Law Journal (May 7).
Association of American Law Schools 1993 Directory of Law Teachers Association of American Law Schools.
“Bell, Harvard Agree to Disagree on His Departure.” 1992.
National Law Journal (July 20).
“Bell Still Teaching.” 1990 National Law Journal (November 12).
“Bell Wants Harvard.” 1992 National Law Journal (March 23).
Carter, Stephen L 1991 Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby New York: Basic Books.
Delgado, Richard, and Jean Stefancic 1999 Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge Philadelphia: Temple Univ.
Press.
Essed, Philomena, and Davie Goldberg 2001 ed Race Critical Theories New York: Blackwell.
“In Move to NYU, Derrick Bell Cites Friendship with Its Dean.” 1991 National Law Journal (April 22).
“Prof Moves.” 1991 National Law Journal (April 15) CROSS REFERENCES
Civil Rights; Discrimination; Legal Education.
vBELL, GRIFFIN BOYETTE Griffin Boyette Bell served as U.S attorney general from 1977 to 1979 under President
JIMMY CARTERand before that as a judge on the U.S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from
1961 to 1976 He is also nationally recognized for his skills as a corporate lawyer
Bell was born October 31, 1918, in Americus, Georgia, only 12 miles from Plains, Georgia, the boyhood home of Carter (In fact, Carter and Bell knew each other as children.) Bell served in the U.S Army during WORLD WAR II After the war, he studied at Mercer University Law School, graduating cum laude in 1948 He gained admission to the Georgia bar in 1947 Bell practiced law in Savannah, Georgia, and Rome, Georgia, from 1947 to 1953, after which
he moved to Atlanta to work in the prestigious firm of King and Spalding, where he eventually earned the position of managing partner Bell also became involved in politics, serving from
1959 to 1961 as chief of staff to Governor S Ernest Vandiver, of Georgia
SCHOOL DESEGREGATION was a heated issue at the time Governor Vandiver vigorously op-posed desegregation, inventing the slogan“No, Not One” to symbolize his goal of keeping Georgia’s schools completely segregated Bell acted as a moderating influence on Vandiver, working behind the scenes to ease tensions with African American leaders Eventually, Vandiver and the Georgia legislature agreed to conditional desegregation
Bell served as cochairman of the Georgia election campaign in 1960 forJOHN F.KENNEDY His success at that task won him an appoint-ment as judge to the U.S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1961, a position he held through 1976 During his 15 years on the bench,
he took part in more than 3,000 cases, 141 of them involving school desegregation
Observers have categorized Bell’s judicial decisions as moderate to conservative He gen-erally supported CIVIL RIGHTS advocates in
10 BELL, GRIFFIN BOYETTE
Trang 4employment and voting rights cases, but he
opposed busing as a means to achieve school
desegregation At times, his decisions could have
been described as liberal, as when he supported
attempts to place more African Americans on
juries and approvedAFFIRMATIVE ACTIONhiring for
the Mississippi Highway Patrol His most
influen-tial work was the initiation of a reform scheme that
improved the efficiency of the court system
Bell also served as cochairman of the Atlanta
Commission on Crime and Delinquency from
1965 to 1966 He resigned from the appeals
court in 1976, resumed private practice, and
served as legal adviser to Carter during Carter’s
presidential campaign that year Once elected as
president, Carter named Bell attorney general, a
move that disappointed those who had hoped
Carter would appoint an African American or a
woman to the office Bell’s nomination ran into
trouble when it was revealed that he belonged to
three clubs that were in effect racially
segregat-ed Bell agreed to quit the clubs and was
nominated to the post of attorney general on
January 25, 1977
Upon taking office, Bell defused some of the
opposition to his appointment by naming
African Americans to the posts of solicitor
general and assistant attorney general He also
appointed women to other key positions in the
department and to federal judgeships Later,
Bell proudly pointed out that 41 women were
appointed and confirmed to the federal bench
during the Carter administration, producing an
eightfold increase in the number of federal
judgeships occupied by women As attorney general, Bell again championed court reform and also pushed for greater FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION involvement in pursuing white-collar, narcotics, and antitrust violations
Bell resigned as attorney general in 1979 and resumed his work in private practice as senior partner at King and Spalding Bell has been called on frequently by Fortune 500 corpora-tions for advice on difficult legal issues He led independent investigations of Exxon Corpora-tion’s actions following a 1989 oil spill in Prince William Sound, off the coast of Alaska, and, in
Griffin Boyette Bell 1918–2009
❖
◆
◆
1914–18
World
War I
1918 Born,
Americus, Ga.
1941–45 Served in U.S.
Army during World War II;
rose to rank of major
1950–53 Korean War
1954 Brown v Board of Education
decision held racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional
1961–73 Vietnam War
◆
1959 Became chief of staff
to Governor Ernest Vandiver
of Ga.
1965–66 Served
as chair of the Atlanta Commission on Crime and Deliquency
1985–86 Served as president of the American College of Trial Lawyers
◆
1979 Returned
to private practice at King and Spalding
◆
1977 Appointed U.S attorney general by President Carter
◆
◆
1992 Served
as personal attorney to President George H.
W Bush
2001 Named to President-elect George W Bush’s transition advisory team
◆
2000 Presidential election result uncertain due to disputed Florida vote count; recount halted by U.S Supreme Court with 5-4 vote in
Bush v Gore
❖
2009 Died, Atlanta, Ga.
1971 Public school busing to achieve integration began
in several states
◆
1961 Appointed to U.S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by President Kennedy
◆
1948 Earned LL.B cum laude from Mercer University Law School
◆
2008 Footnotes to History published
Griffin Boyette Bell.
AP IMAGES
IF YOU BELIEVE IN EXALTING THE BILL OF RIGHTS YOU HAVE TO BE FOR THE INDIVIDUAL,EVEN IF
IT MEANS BEING AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT
—G RIFFIN B ELL
BELL, GRIFFIN BOYETTE 11
Trang 51992, Dow Corning Corporation’s handling
of lawsuits resulting from its silicone breast implants In the early 2000s Bell continued to focus on giving advice and counsel on matters relating to corporate crime His organization of the firm’s Special Matters Group assembled lawyers with a wide variety of experience in representing corporations charged with civil or corporate wrongdoing He served as an arbitra-tor on two international ARBITRATION panels as well as an advisor on several major corporate litigation cases
Bell served as cochairman of the National Task Force on Violent Crime in 1981 and cochairman of the Committee on Federal Ethics in 1989 He also served as president of the American College of Trial Lawyers Bell received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Mercer University in 1967 and theORDER
OF THE COIF from Vanderbilt Law School In
1982 he published Taking Care of the Law, which relates his experiences as attorney general and sets forth his recommendations for legal reform and the reduction of govern-ment bureaucracy
After the SEPTEMBER 11TH ATTACKS of 2001, Bell wrote an editorial for the Wall Street Journal addressing the issue of the curtailment
of civil liberties In November 2001 he testified
on the same issue before the SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE In February 2003 the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon, in response to complaints from some lawmakers and civil liberties groups, planned to create an oversight board and outside advisory committee to track the activity of a global data-surveillance research program known as the Total Information Aware-ness Project Griffin Bell was named to the advisory committee that would advise the secre-tary of defense on the social and legal implications
of the new surveillance technology In 2004 Bell
helped author a commissioned report on the internal disciplinary practices of the FBI’s Office
of Professional Responsibility, which he and his colleague found in need of reform
Bell died in January 2009 at the age of 90
FURTHER READINGS Baker, Nancy V 1992 Conflicting Loyalties: Law and Politics
in the Attorney General’s Office, 1789–1990 Lawrence: Univ Press of Kansas.
Bell, Griffin B 1978 “The Attorney General: The Federal Government ’s Chief Lawyer and Chief Litigator, or One among Many?” Fordham Law Review 46 (May) Bell, Griffin B., and John P Cole, ed 2008 Footnotes to History: A Primer on the American Political Character Macon, Ga.: Mercer Univ Press.
Bell, Griffin B., with Ronald J Ostrow 1982 Taking Care of the Law New York: Morrow Reprint 1986 Macon, Ga.: Mercer Univ Press.
Blum, Andrew 1993 “In Bell Probe for Dow, Bid Made for Implant Papers ” National Law Journal (February 1).
——— 1989 “Valdez Captain Takes Offensive.” National Law Journal (October 23).
Dillard, Stephen Louis A 2003 “Griffin Bell” in Great American Judges: An Encyclopedia Edited by John R Vile Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio Reprinted online
at <www.kslaw.com/library/pdf/griffinbell.pdf> (accessed August 27, 2003).
Justice Department 1991 200th Anniversary of the Office of the Attorney General, 1789–1989 Washington, D.C.: Department of Justice, Office of Attorney General and Justice Management Division.
Murphy, Reg 1999 Uncommon Sense: The Achievement of Griffin Bell Atlanta, Ga.: Longstreet.
vBELL, JOHN John Bell was born February 15, 1797, near Nashville, Tennessee He graduated from Cum-berland College in Nashville in 1817 and was admitted to the bar in the same year He practiced law in Franklin and Nashville, Ten-nessee, before entering politics
From 1827 to 1841, Bell served as a congressman for Tennessee in the U.S House
of Representatives He voiced strong opposition
IT FOLLOWS THAT
POPULARITY IS NOT
ALWAYS THE BEST
TEST OF MERIT,OR OF
GENERAL PROPRIETY
—J OHN B ELL
John Bell 1797–1869
◆
◆
◆
◆
1796 Tennessee
became U.S state
1797 Born,
Nashville, Tenn.
1817 Graduated from Cumberland College
1827–41 Served
in U.S House of Representatives
1834 Elected speaker of the House
1847–59 Served in U.S.
Senate
1860 Ran unsuccessfully for U.S.
president
1861–65 U.S Civil War
1869 Died, Stewart County, Tenn.
12 BELL, JOHN
Trang 6to Andrew Jackson’s program for the deposit of
federal funds into state banks and to the
elimination of the BANK OF THE UNITED STATES
Bell was secretary of war in 1841 and then
U.S senator for Tennessee for twelve years
beginning in 1847
In 1860 Bell was the unsuccessful
presiden-tial candidate of a small party known as the
Constitutional Union Party He favored a
cautious policy concerningSLAVERYand opposed
the South’s secession from the Union until the
battle of Fort Sumter signaled the outbreak of
theCIVIL WAR; he then encouraged Tennessee to
join the Confederacy
Bell died September 10, 1869, in Stewart
County, Tennessee
BELOW
In an inferior, subordinate, or lower place in
regard to any entity
A court below is a lower court through
which a case has passed A case is removed for
review from the court below to the court above,
or a higher court The forum where a lawsuit is
initially brought is called an INFERIOR COURT, or
the court below
BENCH
A forum of justice comprised of the judge or judges
of a court The seat of the court occupied by the
judges
The bench is used to refer to a group of
judges as a collective whole It is a tribunal or
place where justice is administered To appear
before the full bench means to appear before
the entire group of judges of the court
BENCH TRIAL
A trial conducted before a judge presiding without
a jury
BENCH WARRANT
A process that is initiated by the court pro se in
order to attach or arrest a person An order that a
judge, or group of judges, issues directly to the police
with the purpose of directing a person’s arrest
A bench warrant is used for attachment or
arrest in a case of contempt, which is the willful
disregard or disobedience of an authority such as
the court A bench warrant is also issued when
an indictment, which is a written accusation of a
person’s guilt for an act or omission, is handed down A third instance where a bench warrant is issued is to obtain a witness who disobeys a
SUBPOENA, which is a command to appear at a specified time and place to present testimony upon a certain matter
BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION
An incorporated or voluntary nonprofit organiza-tion that has been created primarily to protect and aid its members and their dependents
Beneficial association is an all-inclusive term that refers to an organization that exists for the mutual assistance of its members or its mem-bers’ families, relatives, or designated benefici-aries, during times of hardship, such as illness or financial need The assistance provided by a beneficial association can take the form of life, accident, health, or burial insurance Beneficial associations may also be called benevolent associations, fraternal societies, fraternal orders,
or friendly associations or societies
History
Early beneficial associations were similar to the English friendly societies, which first appeared
in the 1500s Working people organized these clubs to provide sickness and death benefits for
John Bell.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION 13
Trang 7A sample bench
warrant
ILLUSTRATION BY GGS
CREATIVE RESOURCES.
REPRODUCED BY
PERMISSION OF GALE, A
PART OF CENGAGE
LEARNING.
Bench Warrant
Civil
TO ANY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER:
Arrest and deliver to the sheriff the above named person because this person:
failed to appear in court as required:
Date of court appearance:
Type of court appearance:
failed to:
Completing the attached Order for Financial Disclosure and Financial Disclosure Statement, SC-506
Agreeing to appear at a future supplementary examination at a time and place to be determined by the judgment creditor
Paying the amount owed on the judgment $ Paying the statutory sheriff’s fees.
Paying other costs $ Performing the following conditions as authorized by the court: (All conditions under this section must be specifically authorized by the court.)
Other:
If the person posts the total amount due and is released, the law enforcement agency shall inform the court and district attorney of any
GF-165, 08/07 Bench Warrant Civil §§54.62(8), 785.04 and 857.09, Wisconsin Statutes
This form shall not be modified It may be supplemented with additional material
new court date
For Official Use
BY THE COURT:
Geographic restriction:
Statewide Within county of ORI Within adjacent counties of ORI
Other: Circuit Court Judge/Court Commissioner
Name Printed or Typed
Date
Case No
Name of Person Person’s Address
Person’s Phone Number ( )
Person’s Date of Birth Sex Race Driver’s License Number
Height Weight Eye Color Hair Color Other Identifying Characteristics
.
.
This person may be released upon completion of any all of the following conditions: .
14 BENCH WARRANT
Trang 8members Several fraternal societies established
branches in the United States and Canada in the
early 1800s
The Ancient Order of United Workmen,
founded in 1868, was the first beneficial
association to pay substantial death benefits
Other groups that followed its model were soon
created These early associations and societies
furnished life insurance to members whose
income was so low they could not have
otherwise obtained insurance benefits In
addi-tion, many of these associations provided
companionship and social activities for their
members
The National Fraternal Congress was
formed in 1886 to provide state regulation and
uniform legislation for beneficial associations
In 1901, a group of associations and societies
formed the Associated Fraternities of America
In 1913 the two groups merged to form the
National Fraternal Congress of America
Beneficial associations include the police
Benevolent Association, Loyal Order of the
Moose, Knights of Columbus, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, and Benevolent and
PROTECTIVE ORDER of Elks Many of these
associations are secret lodges, with passwords,
ceremonies, and initiation rites
Organization and Incorporation
The common-law right of contract authorizes
the formation of a beneficial association
through the voluntary association of its
mem-bers Incorporation of a beneficial association
may occur either by a specific legislative act or
under general statutes that expressly authorize
such incorporation Some states codify laws
pertaining to the formation and incorporation
of beneficial associations in their nonprofit
corporation law; they do so because beneficial
associations may not be formed with the
purpose of bringing a financial benefit to their
founders
A beneficial association is organized
through its charter, constitution, and bylaws
Charter The charter of a benevolent
associa-tion is the basis of its legal existence and the
source of its power to carry out the objects of its
creation A charter is analogous to ARTICLES OF
INCORPORATIONand becomes part of the contract
of membership when one joins the beneficial
association For beneficial associations that elect
to incorporate, the charter will be embodied in
the articles of incorporation Regardless of whether the association is incorporated, the charter incorporates by reference the general laws of the state in which the association is formed
Constitution and Bylaws The constitution of
a benevolent association defines the fundamen-tal principles that will govern the duties of the association and its officers and the regulation of its membership Unless the constitution is expressly embodied in the charter, it is regarded
as a code of laws similar in effect to bylaws A constitutional provision will prevail over a provision of a conflicting bylaw because it is viewed as a fundamental rule for the govern-ment of the association
Beneficial associations may adopt bylaws that will determine all questions of discipline, doctrine, and internal policy and will regulate the association’s general business activities The enactment of a bylaw is governed by provisions contained in either the charter or the constitu-tion Bylaws must be in accordance with the law andPUBLIC POLICY, must be reasonable, and must apply to all members uniformly The constitu-tion and the bylaws form a binding contract between and upon all the organization’s mem-bers Finally, bylaws also provide for the dissolution of a beneficial association
Rights, Powers, and Liabilities
The authority and powers of beneficial associa-tions are subject to the statutes under which the associations are formed and organized An incorporated association may not enlarge the powers granted to it by the statute under which
it was created Certain powers, such as the power to enter into contractual relations, may
be implied when they are essential to the accomplishment of the association’s objectives
Contracts are binding upon the association when they have been executed by the appropri-ate officers of the association Through its proper committees or officers, a beneficial association may enter into a lease
Generally, a beneficial association has no power to borrow money However, some states permit proper officers or committees to execute bonds and mortgages in order to secure building loans Ordinarily, beneficial associations can transact business in places other than the state within which they have been organized
BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION 15
Trang 9Because beneficial associations are founded
on the principle of mutuality, in which each member shares all the benefits as well as all the burdens, they do not haveCAPITAL STOCK, nor do all associations maintain a fund for paying benefits If a fund is not maintained, each member promises to contribute an equal share with every other member as the association’s need for funds arises
Unless a statute makes a distinction, courts generally recognize a beneficial association certificate containing insurance features to be the same as any other similar insurance contract If the certificate indemnifies a member
in case of disability or death, the association will
be regarded as a mutual insurance company
However, beneficial associations are not the same as insurance companies First, beneficial associations do not have as a purpose the goal of indemnifying or securing against loss; rather, they create a trust fund with their members’
dues, from which they may provide relief to their members Second, beneficial associations are not created for profit Third, these associa-tions do not advertise for business but limit their clientele to their members Finally, whereas an insurance company fixes a bene-ficiary’s rights with the terms of the insurance policy, a beneficial association member’s rights
to receive benefits depend on both the certifi-cate and the constitution and bylaws of the association
Power to Acquire Funds and Property A beneficial association may acquire and dispose
of property in a proper manner and for proper purposes, whether by sale, deed, lease, mortgage,
or other document A valid bequest of property for charitable purposes may be made to an association that has been incorporated and authorized by its charter to hold property for such purposes The funds of a beneficial association should be spent according to the association’s purpose as defined by its charter, articles of incorporation, constitution, or bylaws
Benefits A beneficial association’s bylaws and controlling statutes specifically designate which benefits are payable to its members, and the types of benefits provided are restricted to those specified
Beneficial associations may make payments
in two ways The first is based on the contractual agreement between the association
and its members As with an insurance policy, the members’ dues are a contribution to a fund from which specified benefits are paid upon a proper claim Disputes arising from this con-tractual relationship may ultimately be resolved
in a court of law
The second way a beneficial association confers payments is through an act of benevo-lence The term benevolence means the doing of
a kind or helpful action towards another, under
no obligation except possibly an ethical one A beneficial association may appoint a board to review applications for benefits not based on the contractual relationship This board could, for example, extend additional financial benefits to
a disabled member who has exhausted the benefits specified in the bylaws If such a benefit
is given as a matter of benevolence, it may not
be claimed as a right, and it is not enforceable in court Likewise, a beneficial association could donate money to a civic activity as an act of benevolence
An association may set forth certain condi-tions precedent to the receipt of benefits by its members Such conditions must be met before the right to receive benefits may be enforced
If a member of a beneficial association defaults on the payment of dues, the member might lose the right to receive benefits In general, one claiming benefits from an associa-tion must exhaust all remedies within the organization before seeking judicial relief Liabilities A beneficial association may not ordinarily be held liable in tort or contract for unauthorized acts of its members or agents A voluntary unincorporated beneficial association
is considered to be a joint enterprise, and no liability for tort exists between those engaged therein An unincorporated association, may, however, be held responsible for damages resulting from the NEGLIGENCE of its employees
in work of a noncharitable character
FURTHER READINGS
“Fraternal Orders and Benefit Societies.” American Jurispru-dence 36, vol 2.
Owens, Bill 1975 Our Kind of People: American Groups and Rituals New York: Simon & Schuster.
Whalen, William J 1967 Handbook of Secret Organizations Milwaukee, WI: Bruce.
CROSS REFERENCES Bylaws; Insurance.
16 BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION
Trang 10BENEFICIAL INTEREST
Profits or advantages from property derived from
the terms of a trust agreement
A beneficiary of a trust has a beneficial
interest in the trust property, theLEGAL TITLEof
which is held by the trustee The beneficiary
receives the advantages of ownership of the
property which the trustee holds and distributes
according to the terms of the trust agreement
BENEFICIAL USE
A right to utilize real property, including light, air,
and access to it, in any lawful manner to gain a
profit, advantage, or enjoyment from it A right to
enjoy real or personal property held by a person
who has equitable title to it while legal title is held
by another
A beneficial use involves greater rights
than a mere right to possession of land, because
it extends to the light and air over the land and
access to it, which can be infringed by the
beneficial use of other property by another
owner If a dispute arises from the conflicting
ways in which two ADJOINING LANDOWNERS
exercise their respective beneficial uses of their
property, a court, exercising its discretion, may
adjudicate those rights A beneficiary of a trust
has beneficial use of the trust property, theLEGAL
TITLE to which is held by the trustee
BENEFICIARY
An organization or a person for whom a trust is
created and who thereby receives the benefits of the
trust One who inherits under a will A person
entitled to a beneficial interest or a right to profits,
benefit, or advantage from a contract
BENEFIT OF CLERGY
In old England, the privilege of clergy that allowed
them to avoid trial by all courts of the civil
government
Originally members of the clergy were
exempted from CAPITAL PUNISHMENT upon
con-viction of particular crimes based on this
privilege, but it did not encompass crimes of
either high treason or misdemeanors
Benefit of clergy existed to alleviate the
severity of criminal laws as applied to the clergy
It was, however, found to promote such
exten-sive abuses that it was ultimately eliminated
Benefit of clergy does not exist in the United States today
The phrase“without the benefit of clergy” is used colloquially to describe a couple living together outside a legalMARRIAGE
vBENJAMIN, JUDAH PHILIP Judah Philip Benjamin was attorney general of theCONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICAunder Presi-dent Jefferson Davis Though described by many
as a brilliant, self-made man, he was also characterized as the“dark prince of the Confed-eracy” in Robert W Service’s poem “John Brown’s Body.”
Benjamin was born August 6, 1811, on St
Croix Island, in the British West Indies His parents, Philip Benjamin and Rebecca de Mendes Benjamin, were Sephardic Jews who had immi-grated to the West Indies from Spain Hearing that Jews were tolerated and allowed to prosper in the U.S Carolinas, the family moved to the United States in 1813, settling in Charleston, South Carolina Young Benjamin attended the Fayette-ville Academy, in FayetteFayette-ville, North Carolina, and entered Yale in 1825 at the age of fourteen
He was the top student in his class when he was expelled in 1827 He was charged with stealing from a fellow student, but the allegations were never proved Though Benjamin was not an observant Jew, historians acknowledge that anti-Semitism was probably at the heart of the charges and his dismissal from school
Following his expulsion, Benjamin moved to New Orleans, where he clerked in a commercial house and studied law until he was admitted to the bar in 1832 (A commercial house of the early 1800s was usually involved in the financial trans-actions around the movement of goods, i.e., lending, bonding, insuring, fees for transport, rent for storage, and contracts of sales.) While studying, he supplemented his income by giving English lessons to the French Creole aristocracy
One of his pupils, Natalie St Martin, became his wife in a Roman Catholic ceremony in 1833
Though his wife was extravagant and notoriously promiscuous, Benjamin indulged her Many of his peers commented that Benjamin’s wealth could be attributed more to the demands of his wife than to his personal ambitions For her, he acquired the Belle Chase sugar plantation and an elegant townhouse on Bourbon Street in New Orleans
BENJAMIN, JUDAH PHILIP 17