LEGAL PHASES OF COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS 115 
to be considered at a meeting, it is particularly important that the 
nature of the business be brought to the attention of each member. 84 
UNINCORPORATED ASSOCIATIONS AND THIRD PERSONS 
The liability of the members of an association that is not engaged 
in business has been said to rest upon the principles of agency. 85 An 
illustration will make this more clear. In a Massachusetts case 86 
the constitution stated that the association was formed to stimulate 
interest in the breeding of pigeons and bantams. It gave the board 
of directors charge of all public exhibitions of the society and re- 
quired each member to pay an initiation fee and an annual assess- 
ment. An exhibition was held, and premiums were offered. The 
expenses thereof were greater than the receipts. Certain of the 
members paid the bills. They then brought suit against other mem- 
bers of the association to compel them to contribute their respective 
proportions of the loss sustained. The court said : 
Mere membership would not bind anybody for any further payment than 
the initiation fee and annual assessment ; but such members as participated 
in a vote to incur further expenses for an exhibition with premiums, or as 
assented to be bound by such vote, would be bound thereby. 
In other words, only those members were liable who authorized 
the exhibition with premiums or who later ratified the act of holding 
such an exhibition. The other members were not liable. 
In a Michigan case 87 the members of a building committee of an 
unincorporated religious society ordered lumber of a dealer for the 
building of a church. A dispute arose, and the dealer brought suit 
against the members of the building committee, and won. In hold- 
ing the defendants liable, the court said : 
The church organization had no legal existence. It could neither sue nor 
be sued. The members of the society were not partners. Those of the society 
who were actually instrumental in incurring the liabilities for it are liable 
as either principals or agents having no legal principal behind them. Members 
of the society who either authorized or ratified the transaction are liable, while 
those who did not are exempt from liability. 
All the authorities apparently agree that if the debt or obligation 
in question was necessarily incurred for the express purpose for 
which the association was formed, each member thereof is liable. In 
a South Dakota 88 case the following language was used with refer- 
ence to this matter: 
Each member of an unincorporated or voluntary association is liable for the 
debts thereof incurred during the period of membership and which had been 
necessarily contracted for the purpose of carrying out the objects for which the 
association was formed. 
The question sometimes arises as to the liability of officers of an 
unincorporated association for debts contracted by them for the 
association. In the case of a business association the officers ordi- 
narily are personally liable for its debts, but if they include a pro- 
vision in the contract creating the obligation that they are not per- 
84 State ex rel Rowland v. Seattle Baseball Ass'n, 61 Wash. 79, 111 P. 1055. 
85 5 C. J. 1363. 
88 Ray v. Powers, 134 Mass. 22. 
87 Clark v. O'Rourke, 111 Mich. 108, 69 N. W. 147, 66 Am. St. Rep. 389. 
88 Lynn v. Commercial Club of Witten, 31 S. D. 401, 141 N. W. 471; see also Little 
Rock Furniture Mfg. Co. v. Kavanaugh, 111 Ark. 575, 164 S. W. 289; Schumacher v. 
Sumner Tel. Co., 161 Iowa 326, 142 N. W. 1034. 
