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  unregistered ­
  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  association ­
  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.