Voluntary Association. Equity Pleading and Practice, Parties, Appeal. A bill in equity cannot be maintained by a voluntary unincorporated association in the name of the association. In the present suit, the association being described as composed of three individuals "and many other members too numerous to mention," the bill was treated as if it had been brought by those individuals suing in behalf of themselves and of all the other members of the association.
Where in a suit in equity, which was referred to a master, the hearing before the master was confined by agreement of the parties to two issues, all other averments of the bill being taken as admitted, a motion, presented to the master after the first draft of his report was submitted to the parties, seeking a reopening of the hearings for the hearing and reporting of evidence on certain specified issues, should be denied by the master, where it appears that some of the specifications in the motion relate to issues other than the two to which by agreement the hearings were confined and the master finds that those two issues have been fully tried; and, after the filing of the master's report, a motion to recommit it to the master based on the same grounds properly may be denied.
SHELDON, J.
This bill, though wrongly entitled, is treated as if brought by the individuals named in it as plaintiffs, suing in behalf of themselves and all the other members of the voluntary association. It could not have been maintained by the voluntary association itself. Pickett v. Walsh, 192 Mass. 572, 589. L.D. Willcutt Sons Co. v. Driscoll, 200 Mass. 110, 111.
At the hearing before the master, only two questions were in dispute, and it was agreed that in other respects all the averments of the bill were admitted. Those questions were whether the defendant corporation had employed professional singers in the prize singing contest and whether some of those who competed for it in that contest were not bona fide members thereof. The constitution and by-laws of the plaintiffs' association provided that no professional singers should be employed; and it was agreed that if the defendant corporation had violated those bylaws, it was not entitled to hold the cup for the possession of which the bill was brought.
These two issues were found against the defendants. Unless some of the exceptions to the master's report should have been sustained, or the report should have been recommitted to the master, it is plain that the decree against them was correct.
The judge was not bound to grant the motion to recommit. No reason appears why there should be any hearing as to matters which once had been agreed; and it is not, and apparently was not, shown that as to matters which were contested there was any real occasion for a further hearing. The motion rightly was denied.
We see no ground for sustaining any of the exceptions to the report. Those which relate to findings of fact must be overruled, because we have not before us all the evidence. Many of the others are immaterial, and ought not to have been argued. We find no error in any of the rulings of the master that have been excepted to upon the admission or exclusion of evidence. As to several of these, it does not appear what evidence was ruled upon, and for that reason no error is shown. The master was not ordered to report the evidence and properly declined to do so. His refusal to reopen the hearings for the admission of further evidence before settling his final report does not appear to have been erroneous.
The order in the final decree that "the defendant" return and redeliver the prize cup to the plaintiffs was intended without doubt to include all the parties defendant. It should be modified to make that certain. With that modification, the decree is to be affirmed with the costs of this appeal.
So ordered.