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within one month after the same shall have become due, shall forfeit his membership and all the benefits resulting therefrom, and his certificate shall cease and become void.

SEC. 24.-Payment to Beneficiary; Class "A." Immediately upon the filing of satisfactory proofs of death. of a member of said Class, there shall be paid to the beneficiary named in his certificate, a sum as provided in Section 20, the amount of which, however, shall not be less than One thousand dollars.

SEC. 25.-Disability Relief; Class "A." Whenever a member of said Class shall claim relief on the ground of old age or permanent disability, and shall produce satisfactory evidence that he is incapacitated for labor of any kind, and has no adequate means of support, the Board of Directors shall have the power to grant him an annuity, not exceeding $300, to be paid in equal monthly installments, from the fund to be made and provided in the manner as is hereinbefore authorized. The total amount to be paid by way of such annuity to any member of such Class shall not be less than $1,000, or more than would have been paid his beneficiary had he died at the time such annuity was granted. A member while receiving such annuity shall not be liable for the payment of any premiums.

SEC. 26.-Payment of Balance of Disability Annuity to Beneficiary; Class "A." Should the claimant die before the said sum is exhausted, the remainder shall be paid over to the beneficiary of said member as provided in Section 24. Upon paying said amount either by way of annuity to the insured or to the beneficiary of said claimant after his death, the liability of the Company shall cease and the certificate shall become terminated.

SEC. 27. Cessation of Disability Annuity; Class “A.” Whenever, in the judgment of the Board of Directors, the necessity for the payment of an annuity shall have ceased, the member shall be notified of its decision and the remainder of the fund which otherwise would have been paid to him, shall be held in trust until his death, when it shall be paid as above provided in Section 24, and

upon such payment all further liability of the Company to any beneficiary, by reason of the death of said claimant, shall cease. But no person shall be entitled to receive any interest upon the fund so held in trust, nor shall the liability of any member for premiums cease by reason of the allowance of his claim for an annuity for disability, except during the time that the installments on said annuity are being paid.

SEC. 28.-Assignment of Certificate; Class "A." No assignment or transfer of any Class A certificate or policy will be recognized by the Company until it shall have consented in writing thereto, and unless the original or duplicate of such assignment shall have been filed in the Home Office of the Company, and the Company will not assume any responsibility for the validity of any such assignment.

SEC. 29.-Bond and Insurance Policy on Real Estate; Certificate of Attorney. Before any money is paid out for authorized loans on real estate, the President shall receive the bond, duly executed, a satisfactory policy of insurance (when fire insurance is required), and the certificate of such Attorney or Counsel for the Company, as may be retained by the President for that purpose, that the title is valid and unencumbered, and that the mortgage is duly executed and delivered.

SEC. 30.-Examining Committee. The accounts and assets of the Company, as of the 30th day of June and the 31st day of December in each year, shall be examined by a Special Committee, appointed by the President, of not less than five Directors, a majority of whom shall not be members of the Finance Committee, and whose report shall be placed on the Minutes.

SEC. 31.-By-Laws; How Altered. These By-Laws shall not be altered or amended, except at a meeting specially called for that purpose, or at a regular meeting subsequent to the meeting at which notice shall have been given of such intention.

SEC. 32. These By-Laws shall take effect from the date of the adoption thereof.

CHARTER AND BY-LAWS OF THE BERKSHIRE LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one. An act to incorporate the Berkshire County Mutual Life Insurance Company.

SECTION 1. George M. Briggs, James E. Marshall, Theodore Pomeroy, George W. Platner, Phineas Allen, Jr., J. Marshall Crane, James D. Colt 2nd, George J. Tucker, Benjamin F. Johnson, Daniel B. Fenn, J. Č. Goodrich, Henry L. Sabin, John C. Russell and William T. Filley, their associates and successors, are hereby made a corporation, by the name of the "Berkshire County Mutual Life Insurance Company," to be located in the town of Pittsfield, for the purpose of making insurance on the lives, with all the powers and privileges, and subject to all the duties, liabilities and restrictions set forth, in the forty-fourth chapter of the Revised Statutes.

SEC. 2. There shall be an original guarantee capital stock, subscribed to the said corporation, which shall be one hundred thousand dollars, to be divided into shares by the corporation, half of which shall be paid in, in money, before the said corporation shall go into operation for the purpose of making insurance; the other half of the said stock may be called for by the directors from time to time, when they deem it necessary or expedient, and shall be paid in by the holders of the stock, which shall always stand pledged to the corporation, for all such assessments so called for.

SEC. 3. At the first meeting of the corporation a number of directors, not less than twelve, shall be chosen by the subscribers to the guarantee stock, who shall hold their offices for one year, and until others shall be chosen

in their stead. At all subsequent elections of directors, the number shall be such as may have been provided for by a previous vote of the directors, or by-law of the corporation; and in case of no provision on this subject, the number shall be the same as at the first election, one-half of whom shall be elected by the subscribers to the guarantee stock, and the other half by the assured, not being holders of the guarantee stock, voting in separate bodies. The directors shall all be either stockholders or assured, and in ceasing to be such, shall cease to hold the said office.

SEC. 4. Whenever the net surplus receipts of the said corporation over the losses and expenses, and after providing for risks, shall be sufficient for the purpose, the stockholders shall be entitled to an annual dividend of 7 per cent, or to such less dividend as may be agreed on at the time of subscribing for the stock, and in case of such dividend not being made in any one year, it shall be made good at a subsequent period, when the net resources of the company shall be sufficient for paying the same.

SEC. 5. The funds of the said corporation shall be invested in such purchases and loans as are permitted to savings banks, in the seventy-eighth and seventy-ninth sections of the thirty-sixth chapter of the revised statutes, and in the forty-fourth chapter of the acts of the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-one. The said company may hold real estate to the amount of ten thousand dollars for the purpose of securing suitable offices for the institution.

SEC. 6. After providing for risks, losses, incidental expenses and dividends as aforesaid, the directors shall set apart one-quarter of the estimated surplus funds and receipts as a reserve fund, to be applied to the redemption of the guarantee stock; and whenever after the expiration of ten years from the time of organizing the company, the amount of such funds shall be sufficient for the purpose, and the assured shall vote to redeem the said guarantee stock, the same shall be redeemed.

SEC. 7. Upon the redemption and extinction of the guarantee stock, under the provision of the sixth section, the Directors shall be chosen by the assured.

SEC. 8. At the expiration of every five years from the time of the organization of the company, the remaining three-quarters of the estimated surplus funds and receipts shall be reimbursed to and among the assured, in proportion to the whole amount of premiums paid during the preceding five years.

SEC. 9. The said corporation shall on the third Monday of January in each year, pay over to the Trustees of the Massachusetts General Hospital, one-third of the net profits if any, which shall have arisen from insurance on lives made during the preceding year.

House of Representatives, May 10, 1851. Passed to be enacted.

N. P. BANKS, JR., Speaker.

In Senate, May 14, 1851. Passed to be enacted.
HENRY WILSON, President.

May 15, 1851. Approved.

GEORGE S. BOUTWELL.

CHANGE OF NAME OF COMPANY.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.

I.

SECTION 1. The Berkshire County Mutual Life Insurance Company are hereby authorized to take the name of the Berkshire Life Insurance Company.

SEC. 2.

passage.

This act shall take effect from and after its

House of Representatives, April 30, 1855. Passed to be enacted.

DANIEL C. EDDY, Speaker, etc.

In Senate, May 1, 1855. Passed to be enacted.

HENRY W. BENCHLEY, President.

May 3, 1855. Approved.

(Signed)

HENRY J. GARDNER.

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