Section 10-4-170 Definitions.
Section 10-4-170
Definitions.
For the purposes of this article, the following terms shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:
(1) MAJORITY GROUP. Sixty-five percent or more of membership, resident in Alabama, enrolled in any local fraternal order, not including members who are minors under the age of 19 years at the date of filing the complaint or, with respect to any corporation or group organized in Alabama for fraternal, charitable or educational purposes, "majority group" means 65 percent, or more, of the adult membership resident in Alabama of any governing or voting board having voting authority in the control or administration of such organization.
(2) LOCAL FRATERNAL ORDER. Any chapter, order, club, lodge, association, mission, subdivision, active, alumni or fraternal brotherhood, whether or not incorporated, in any city, town or county in Alabama, which holds title to, or a fiduciary or trust interest in, property or the income therefrom and which is affiliated with, or recognizes the rules, administrative, jurisdictional or other superior authority of, a larger denominational body of the same order. The term "local order" shall also include any organization organized in Alabama for fraternal, charitable or educational purposes having title to, administrative supervision or control (in trust) over property subject to any such higher jurisdiction or authority.
(3) PARENT FRATERNAL ORDER. The larger denominational body or authority having jurisdiction over or affiliated with such local fraternity, alumni association, chapter, camp, lodge, mission or fraternal order, having under the plan of organization of the particular fraternal order jurisdiction in the matter or practice of faith, rules, membership, property, social creed or pronouncements, or other organic or administrative function of that fraternal order, the designation "parent organization" being applicable to any such authority whose action or interpretation is made the basis for relief and protection hereunder.
(4) FRATERNAL PROPERTY. All property, real, personal or mixed, belonging to, or in the possession of, the local order, as defined in this section, or title to which is vested in the local order, or in trustee for the use and benefit of such local fraternal order or a corporation if the local fraternal order is incorporated, whether such use and benefit are expressed in title instruments or not.
(5) TRUST CLAUSE. Any clause or provision inserted in a deed, transfer, will or contract or which is required by the law or rules of the parent organization to be so inserted providing that property acquired by the local order, or in the name of trustees or a corporation for the use of the local organization, shall be held in trust for the use and benefit of the parent organization, or one or more of its affiliates, members, officers or agents, or a clause in the deed, will, fraternal law or rules providing substantially as follows:
In trust, that said premises shall be used, kept and maintained as a place of fraternal work of the parent organization or as a place of residence for the use and occupancy of members of the parent organization subject to the rules, usage and fraternal appointments of said order as from time to time authorized and declared by the law-making bodies of the fraternal organization.
(6) WITHDRAW or WITHDRAWAL. The voluntary action of the majority group taken or initiated to sever the affiliation, connection or fraternal ties of the local organization with or from the parent organization as authorized by the provisions of this article.
(7) CHANGE OF SOCIAL POLICIES. Any substantial and material change in or departure from the rules, social creed, jurisdictional system, authoritative pronouncements or other fraternal law relating to the social standards, practices or policies of the parent organization or its affiliated institutions, as the same existed at the time of affiliation or merger of the local organization, and which change is contrary to the way of life of the majority group.
(8) AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS. Organizations or boards deriving their powers, functions, funds and property directly from the parent organization, as defined in this section, or from its law-making body and does not mean organizations or boards organized under or answerable to any state organization, board, convention or authority constituting a branch of the parent organization.
(9) FRATERNAL ORDER. An organization wherein a group of men, women or men and women are bound together for the purposes of advancing their educational, social or other benefits; also the relation of persons associating on the footing of brothers; also, a body or class of persons having common purposes and interests; brothers including sisters and sisters including brothers.
(Acts 1961, Ex. Sess., No. 176, p. 2137, §1.)