on the member's death. A member who has been wrongfully expelled may be restored by a mandamus proceeding issued by a court. Before making the order the court will inquire into the facts and satisfy itself whether in expelling the applicant the society has properly acted in accord with its rules. Unless some rule or statute forbids, a member of a voluntary association may withdraw at any time. When doing so, however, he cannot avoid any obligations incurred by him to the association. On the other hand, it cannot, after his withdrawal, impose any other obligations on him.

It has often been attempted to hold the members of an association liable personally for a promised benefit in time of sickness. Says Bacon: "It may be a question of construction in each particular case whether the members are personally liable or not. The better rule seems to be that the members are not held personally liable."

An association cannot by its constitution or bylaws confer judicial powers on its officers to adjudge a forfeiture of property rights, or to deprive lodges or members of their property and give it to another, or to other members. To allow associations to do this is contrary to public policy. For the same reason an agreement to refer future controversies to arbitration cannot be enforced; it in effect deprives a party of his rights under the law. He may do this in a known case, this indeed is constantly done, but one cannot bar himself in advance from a resort to the courts for some future controversy of which he has no knowledge at the time of the agreement. This is a rule of law of the widest. application. See Corporation.

Broker. A broker, unlike an auctioneer, usually has no special property in the goods he is authorized

to sell. Ordinarily also he must sell them in the name of the principal, and his sales are private. He receives a commission usually called brokerage. He can act only as the agent of the other party when the terms of the contract are settled, and he is instructed to finish it. Brokers are of many

kinds. They relate to bills and notes, stocks, shipping, insurance, real estate, pawned goods, merchandise, etc. A bill and note broker who does not disclose the principal's name is liable like other agents as a principal. He is also held to an implied authority, not only to sell, but that the signatures of all the parties thereon are genuine. Unless he indorses it he does not warrant their solvency.

An insurance broker is ordinarily employed by the person seeking insurance, and is therefore unlike an insurance agent, who is a representative of an insurance company, and usually has the authority of a general agent. A delivery of a policy therefore, to an insurance broker, would be a delivery to his principal. He is a special agent. Unless employed generally to keep up his principal's insurance, he has no implied authority to return a policy to be cancelled, and notice to him that a policy had ceased, would not be notice to his principal.

An insurance broker must exercise reasonable care and diligence in selecting none but reliable companies, and in securing proper and sufficient policies to cover the risks placed to be covered by insurance; and if he selects companies which are then in good standing he would not be liable should they afterward become insolvent.

Merchandise brokers, unless factors, negotiate for the sale of merchandise without having possession or control of it. Like other agents they must serve faithfully and cannot act for both parties, seller and buyer, in the same transaction, without

the knowledge and consent of both. In many transactions he does thus represent both by their express or implied authority, and therefore binding both when signing for them.

A real estate broker in the employ of his principal is bound to act for his principal alone, using his utmost good faith in his behalf. And a promise by one of the principals in an exchange of real estate, after the completion of the negotiations, to pay a commission to the other party's broker, to whom he owed nothing, is void for lack of a consideration.

To gain his commission a broker must produce a person who is ready, able and willing both to accept and live up to the terms offered by the owner of the property. Nor can a property owner escape payment of a broker's commission by selling the land himself and at a price less than the limit put on the broker.

The business of a pawnbroker is legally regulated by statute, and the states usually require him to get a license. As the business may be prohibited, a municipality or other power may regulate and control his business. The rate of interest that he may charge is fixed by statute. The pawnee may lose his right by exacting unlawful interest. Nor has the pawnee the right to retain possession against the true owner of any article that has been pawned without his consent or authority. If the true owner has entrusted it to someone to sell, who, instead of selling, pawns it, the pawner is protected in taking it as security. The sale of pawned goods is usually regulated by statute. If none exists, and there is no agreement between the parties, the sale must be public after due notice of the time and place of sale. If there is any surplus, arising from the sale, he must pay it to the pawner, and not apply it on another debt that he may owe the pawnee. The pawner, or

an assignee or purchaser of the pawn ticket may redeem it within the time fixed by law or agreement, or even beyond the agreed time if the pawnee has not exercised his right of sale. Subject to the pawnee's claim, the pawner has the same right over the article pawned as he had after pawning it, and may therefore sell and transfer his interest as before. Lastly the pawner is liable for any deficiency after the sale of the thing pawned, unless released by statute. See Agency.

Building Contract.-Formerly a contractor could not recover under a building contract unless there was a full and complete performance of it, or a waiver as to the parts not performed; nor could he recover after a partial performance from which the owner had received a benefit unless there had been such subsequent dealings between the parties as would create an implied contract to pay for what he had done. Now, in most of the states, perhaps, all, if a contractor has attempted in good faith to perform his contract and has substantially performed it-although by inadvertence he has failed to perform it literally according to its terms-he may recover under the contract, with a proper deduction to the owner or imperfections or omissions in performing it. "The reason for this construction of such contracts is in part the difficulty in obtaining perfection in the quality of the materials and workmanship, and of entirely correcting the effect of a slight inadvertence, and the injustice of allowing the owner to retain without compensation the benefit of a costly building upon his real estate, that is substantially, but not exactly, such as he agreed to pay for.'

If the owner accepts a defective building as full performance he is bound by his acceptance. Ordi

narily, after accepting a building, the owner has a reasonable time to examine it before the builder can assume it has been accepted. Says Williston, "The law is clear that the occupancy and use of the building does not in itself indicate assent to relieve the builder from liability or entitle him to sue on the contract."

In many cases where a builder or contractor has undertaken to erect a building or other structure, it has been injured or destroyed without the fault of either party while in process of erection. The general rule requires the builder or contractor to fulfill his promise, and to respond in damages if he fails to complete the structure. Whether the injury or destruction happened by tempest, fire, deceptive soil, or other cause, is immaterial. Nor is a contractor excused from continuing his excavation because the soil or rock is more difficult to remove than he anticipated. Vagaries of the weather furnish no excuse, for they are to be expected.

Business Trust.-In recent times the trust device has been applied to business transactions. In/ the erection of large office buildings, or in extensive schemes for land development, the trust is a practical way to get more capital than any individual has or wishes to put into the business. Therefore the practice has developed of vesting the title to the land in trustees to manage for the benefit of the beneficiaries, whose interests are represented by transferable certificates, which are bought and sold like shares of stock. The beneficiaries have most of the advantages of corporate stockholders without the burdens attaching to individual ownership. These advantages are so obvious that this form of trust is rapidly springing up in many