(a) An action or special proceeding may be maintained, by the president or treasurer of the society, to recover any property, or upon any cause of action, for or upon which all the associates may maintain an action or special proceeding, by reason of their interest or ownership therein, either jointly or in common. An action may likewise be maintained by the president or treasurer to recover from one or more members of the society such member‘s or members’ proportionate share of any moneys lawfully expended by the society for the benefit of the associates, or to enforce any lawful claim of the society against its member or members.
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Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 432:1-203

  • Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
  • Member: means an individual who is covered by a mutual benefit society. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 432:1-406
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
  • Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
  • Society: means mutual benefit society. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 432:1-406
(b) An action or special proceeding may be maintained, against the president or treasurer of the society, to recover any property, or upon any cause of action, for or upon which the plaintiff may maintain an action or special proceeding, against all the associates, by reason of their interest or ownership, or claim of ownership therein, either jointly or in common, or their liability therefor, either jointly or severally, and any order, decree, judgment, or other ruling in any such case shall be binding upon the society and the members thereof.
(c) The death or legal incapacity of a member of the society shall not affect an action or special proceeding, brought as prescribed in subsections (a) and (b). If the officer, by or against whom it is brought, dies, is removed, resigns, or becomes otherwise incapacitated, during the pendency thereof, the court shall make an order, directing it to be continued by or against such officer’s successor in office, or any other officer, by or against whom it might have been originally commenced.
(d) In such an action, the officer against whom it is brought cannot be arrested; and a judgment against such officer shall not authorize an execution to be issued against the officer’s property, or the officer’s person; nor shall the docketing thereof bind the officer’s real property or personal property. Where the judgment is for a sum of money, an execution issued thereupon shall require the levying officer to satisfy the judgment out of any personal or real property belonging to the society, or owned, jointly or in common, by all the members thereof.
(e) Where an action has been brought against an officer, or a counterclaim has been made, in an action brought by an officer, as prescribed in this section, another action, for the same cause, shall not be brought against the members of the society, or any of them, until after final judgment in the first action, and the return, wholly or partly unsatisfied or unexecuted, of an execution issued thereupon. After the return, the party in whose favor the execution was issued, may maintain an action, as follows:

(1) Where such party was the plaintiff, or a defendant recovering upon a counterclaim, such party may maintain an action against the members of the society, or, in a proper case, against any of them, as if the first action had not been brought, or the counterclaim had not been made, as the case requires; and such party may recover, as part of such party’s damages, the costs of the first action, or so much thereof, as the sum, collected by virtue of the execution, was insufficient to satisfy; and
(2) Where such party was a defendant, and the case is not within paragraph (1), such party may maintain an action, to recover the sum remaining uncollected, against the persons who composed the society, when the action against such party was commenced, or the survivors of them.
(f) This section shall not affect the right of the person, in whose favor the judgment in the first action was rendered, to enforce a bond or undertaking, given in the course of the proceedings therein.
(g) This section shall not prevent an action from being brought by or against all the members of a society, except as prescribed in this section. Where an action is brought against the members of the society, as prescribed in this section, the time between the commencement of the action by or against the officer, and the return of the first execution issued upon the final judgment rendered therein, shall not be a part of the time limited by law, for the commencement of the second action.

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