For the purposes of this article, the following terms shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:

(1) AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS. Organizations or boards deriving their powers, functions, funds, and property directly from the parent organization, as defined in this section, or from its law-making body and does not mean organizations or boards organized under or answerable to any state organization, board, convention, or authority constituting a branch of the parent organization.
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Terms Used In Alabama Code 10A-20-8.01

  • Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • following: means next after. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • property: includes both real and personal property. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Alabama Code 1-1-1
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
(2) CHANGE OF SOCIAL POLICIES. Any substantial and material change in or departure from the rules, social creed, jurisdictional system, authoritative pronouncements, or other fraternal law relating to the social standards, practices, or policies of the parent organization or its affiliated institutions, as the same existed at the time of affiliation or merger of the local organization, and which change is contrary to the way of life of the majority group.
(3) FRATERNAL ORDER. An organization wherein a group of men, women or men and women, are bound together for the purposes of advancing their educational, social or other benefits; also the relation of persons associating on the footing of brothers; also, a body or class of persons having common purposes and interests; brothers including sisters and sisters including brothers.
(4) FRATERNAL PROPERTY. All property, real, personal, or mixed, belonging to, or in the possession of, the local order, as defined in this section, or title to which is vested in the local order, or in trustee for the use and benefit of the local fraternal order or a corporation if the local fraternal order is incorporated, whether the use and benefit are expressed in title instruments or not.
(5) LOCAL FRATERNAL ORDER. Any chapter, order, club, lodge, association, mission, subdivision, active, alumni, or fraternal brotherhood, whether or not incorporated, in any city, town, or county in Alabama, which holds title to, or a fiduciary or trust interest in, property or the income therefrom and which is affiliated with, or recognizes the rules, administrative, jurisdictional, or other superior authority of, a larger denominational body of the same order. The term “local order” shall also include any organization organized in Alabama for fraternal, charitable, or educational purposes having title to, administrative supervision, or control, in trust, over property subject to any such higher jurisdiction or authority.
(6) MAJORITY GROUP. Sixty-five percent or more of membership, resident in Alabama, enrolled in any local fraternal order, not including members who are minors under the age of 19 years at the date of filing the complaint or, with respect to any corporation or group organized in Alabama for fraternal, charitable, or educational purposes, “majority group” means 65 percent, or more, of the adult membership resident in Alabama of any governing or voting board having voting authority in the control or administration of the organization.
(7) PARENT FRATERNAL ORDER. The larger denominational body or authority having jurisdiction over or affiliated with the local fraternity, alumni association, chapter, camp, lodge, mission, or fraternal order, having under the plan of organization of the particular fraternal order jurisdiction in the matter or practice of faith, rules, membership, property, social creed or pronouncements, or other organic or administrative function of that fraternal order, the designation “parent organization” being applicable to the authority whose action or interpretation is made the basis for relief and protection hereunder.
(8) TRUST CLAUSE. Any clause or provision inserted in a deed, transfer, will, or contract or which is required by the law or rules of the parent organization to be so inserted providing that property acquired by the local order, or in the name of trustees or a corporation for the use of the local organization, shall be held in trust for the use and benefit of the parent organization, or one or more of its affiliates, members, officers, or agents, or a clause in the deed, will, fraternal law, or rules providing substantially as follows:

In trust, that the premises shall be used, kept, and maintained as a place of fraternal work of the parent organization or as a place of residence for the use and occupancy of members of the parent organization subject to the rules, usage, and fraternal appointments of the order as from time to time authorized and declared by the law-making bodies of the fraternal organization.

(9) WITHDRAW or WITHDRAWAL. The voluntary action of the majority group taken or initiated to sever the affiliation, connection, or fraternal ties of the local organization with or from the parent organization as authorized by this article.
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