142 
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES NOT REGISTERED. 
modern legislation to rely on the procedure for a common 
law misdemeanor alone. Usually, provision is made for 
meeting disobedience to the injunctions of a statute by an 
appropriate penalty ; but no such provision is contained in 
the Companies Acts with regard to the prohibition of un 
registered companies. 
A question of more practical weight p>robably than the 
one of criminal liability is that of the means which persons, 
joining an unregistered society, have of enforcing their 
claims against the officers or persons whom they trust. No 
court would give effect to the rules of a society which by 
its constitution was illegal, or would recognize the asso 
ciation in any way as an aggregate body, and it might be 
doubted whether even Russell Gurney’s Act, beneficial as 
its operation is, would avail to protect the members of such 
an association, if its illegality were proved. 
A further consequence of illegality in a contract of 
partnership is that the members have no remedy against 
each other, for contribution or apportionment in respect of 
the partnership dealings and transactions. 
(2nd.) By the Life Assurance Companies Act, 1870 
(33 & 34 Viet. c. 61), it is declared that “the term 
‘ Company’ means any person or persons, corporate or 
incorporate, not being registered under the Acts relating to 
Friendly Societies, who issue or are liable under policies of 
assurance upon human life within the United Kingdom, or 
who grant annuities upon human life within the United 
Kingdom.” Every such company which does not comply 
with the prolusions of that statute is made liable to heavy 
penalties. The commissioners remark that the word policy 
has no technical meaning. In an Irish case, Sugden, C. (a), 
is reported to have said that a policy is nothing but an 
engagement by the directors that the funds of the company 
are liable to pay a certain sum of money upon a given 
event. It is certainly not to be supposed that a society 
which contracts for a payment of a sum at death can relieve 
itself of the responsibility of complying with the provisions 
(a) Since Lord St. Leonards ; Phillips v. Fastwooil, Lloyd & 
Gould, 291.