An Old Case Revived

    A bill in chancery was filed today by B. M. Thompson.solicitor for Catherine M. Fillmore against the Great Camp of the Knights of Maccabees for Michigan and Arbor Tent, No 296, Knights of the Maccabees. As the circumstances and parties are so well known it will be of not only local but general interest. Mrs. Fillmore is the widow of Ariel H. Fillmore who died at Ann Arbor, June 10, 1893. He was an alderman and a nephew of President Millard Fillmore and was himself very well known. The bill sets forth the facts which are well known to everyone. He held a certificate for $2,000 in the Maccabees order, being a member of Arbor Tent, No. 296. During his life he paid up all the assessments and obeyed the rules of the order, until about Feb. '93. At this time the charge is made that George Lutz, jr., the record keeper of Arbor Tent, No. 296, wrote a letter to David H. Aitken.the grand commander of the order, asking whether or not Mr. Fillmore by holding and owning $5,000 stock in the Ann Arbor Brewing Co. had violated any of the rules and regulations of the order. He answered that Fillmore had. A resolution was passed by the lodge Feb. 10, '93, that Fillmore be dealt with according to section 185 of the constitution of the great camp. This action was taken without notice being given to Fillmore or he being given an opportunity to be heard.

Mrs. Fillmore then recites that she endeavored to have her claim passed upon by the executive of the great camp but without success. That she then filed a bill in chancery against the parties to the present bill and the then executive committee. She received a decree in her favor in the circuit court, but then the defendants appealing to the supreme court this was reversed, that court holding a want of jurisdiction because she had not submitted her claim to the executive committee of the great camp.

    Afterwards she presented her claim to the executive committee and says that she did not have a fair and impartial hearing upon her claim on its merits and it being rejected she appealed to the great camp which carne up at Bay City. It was referred to the committee on appeals, grievances and petitions who made a lengthy report, in which after rehersing the facts it says: "Your committee therefore recommends that the action of the great executive committee be reversed and that the claim of Mrs. Fillmore, for death benefits as beneficiary of Ariel H. Fillmore under and by virtue of endowment certificate, No. 10,094, be allowed and paid."

    Mrs. Fillmore charges that when his report came up in the great camp, it did not receive fair treatment in fact untrue statements were made by some of the officers, in that Devere Hall, Great Lieut. Commander, and attorney for the great camp, stated that Fillmore not only held stock in the Ann Arbor Brewing Co. but also had assisted in its organization, was a director and took an active and prominent part in the management oí its business.

    In view of this alleged fraud she is titled to relief. She believes the membership of the order in the state are liable for an assessment sufficient to satisfy her claim. She therefore asks that Arbor Tent, No. 296, be ordered and decreed to raise and annul the memorandum upon its records indicating that Mr. Fillmore was expelled and that the great camp of Michigan be directed and decreed to make an assessment upon the members of said order to pay the claim so allowed and audited and that your oratrix may have such further relief as shall be agreeable to equity and good conscience.