225 U.S.

Argument for Plaintiffs in Error.

ticular state branch incorporated amounted to laches and under such conditions equity could not grant relief.

The existence of laches in this case is incompatible with a finding of injury to property and deceit to the public.

133 Georgia, 837, reversed.

THE facts, which involve the right of two associations to use the name "Knights of Pythias" and to be incorporated thereunder in one of the States, are stated in the opinion.

Mr. Alton B. Parker and Mr. C. L. Pettigrew, with whom Mr. Samuel A. T. Watkins was on the brief, for plaintiffs in error:

Defendants in error are not entitled to the relief sought, on account of their own acquiescence in the use by the plaintiffs in error of the name under which they were chartered. They could have made the question in 1880, when the first lodge was organized, and subsequently in 1886, when the first subordinate lodge was organized in Georgia, and in 1889 when the charter was granted under the same law that granted the charter of the defendants in error, all of which were done in the open and with the knowledge of the defendants in error, who uttered no word of complaint for over a quarter of a century or until the application for a charter was made in 1906.

No principle in equity is better established than that the right of action is lost by laches.

In Ancient Order of United Workmen v. Graham, 96 Iowa, 592; S. C., 31 L. R. A. 113, a lapse of ten years was held to bar a benevolent association from an injunction. See also, Thompson on Corporations, 8192, 8196; Bacon on Benefit Societies, 1904, § 48A; Burke v. Bishop, 144 Fed. Rep. 838.

For other cases in which the right to enjoin was lost by laches, see Grand Hive L. O. M. v. Supreme Hive L. O. M., 97 N. W. Rep. 779; 9 N. W. Rep. 26; 88 N. W. Rep. 882; Holt v. Parsons, 118 Georgia, 895; Walker v. Phillips,

Opinion of the Court.

225 U.S.

120 Georgia, 728; Reynolds v. Martin, 116 Georgia, 495; Hollingshead v. Bank, 104 Georgia, 250; Marshall v. Means, 12 Georgia, 61; Atkins v. Hill, 7 Georgia, 573; Waterlot Co. v. Bucks, 5 Georgia, 315; City of Elberton v. Pearl Mills, 123 Georgia, 1; Whitley v. James, 121 Georgia, 521; McWhorter v. Cherry, 121 Georgia, 541; Cole v. Burke, 35 Georgia, 280; Knox v. Yow, 91 Georgia, 367.

As to the doctrine of laches, no arbitrary rule exists, but the question is decided upon the circumstances of each case. 16 Cyc. 152, and cases cited.

Lapse of time alone, and together with circumstances, especially circumstances injuring the defendant, preclude relief. Prejudice to defendant precludes relief where the change in circumstances is due to the voluntary act of defendant, or the result of delay itself. If plaintiff sleeps on his rights until the progress of events and change of circumstances render it impossible to grant relief with equal justice to defendants, he is guilty of laches. 16 Cyc. 162, and cases cited; Prince Metallic Paint Co. v. Prince Mfg. Co., 57 Fed. Rep. 938; Boston Rubber-Shoe Co. v. Boston Rubber Co., 149 Massachusetts, 436; Colonial Dames v. Colonial Dames, 60 N. Y. Supp. 302; S. C., 173 N. Y. 586; Richards v. McKall, 124 U. S. 183; Sullivan v. Portland R. Co., 94 U. S. 806.

Mr. Hamilton Douglas and Mr. John P. Ross for defendants in error.

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WHITE delivered the opinion of the court.

A secret fraternal and benevolent order known as the Knights of Pythias was organized as a voluntary association in Washington, District of Columbia, in 1864. Pursuant to the authority conferred by an act of Congress approved May 5, 1870 (16 Stat. 98, c. 80), authorizing the formation of corporations in the District of Columbia,

the persons composing the Supreme Lodge, the governing body of the order, became incorporated as the Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias by filing in the proper office the certificate required by the act. Among other things required to be stated in the certificate was the name or title by which the society was to be known in law and the particular business and objects of the society. The statute provided that upon the filing of the certificate the persons signing and acknowledging the same, and their associates and successors, "shall be a body politic and corporate, by the name stated in such certificate; The life of the corporation thus created, it would seem, expired by limitation in 1890. On June 29, 1894 (28 Stat. 96, c. 119), however, by a special act of Congress, the Supreme Lodge was again made a corporation of the District of Columbia by the name of the Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias, and still exists as such. Membership in the order is restricted to white males. In addition to a Grand Lodge and subordinate lodges in each State to which it has been extended, the order conducts an insurance branch known as the Endowment Rank and a military branch known as the Uniform Rank. The Grand Lodge of Georgia was instituted by the Supreme Lodge on March 20, 1871.

An order of Knights of Pythias of the same general nature as that above described, consisting of members of the colored race, was established in Mississippi on March 26, 1880. It became a corporation of the District of Columbia on or about October 10, 1889, by virtue of the general incorporation act of Congress of May 5, 1870, already referred to, under the name and style of "The Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias, North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa." The order was introduced into Georgia in June, 1886, and a Grand Lodge was instituted in that State by the Supreme Lodge on December 15, 1890. The corporation of October 10, 1889,

was reincorporated December 14, 1903, under the same general law of May 5, 1870, by the name of "Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia." After such reincorporation, on January 15, 1905, the Supreme Lodge issued a new charter to the Grand Lodge of Georgia.

The Supreme Lodge of Knights of Pythias which as heretofore stated was finally incorporated in 1894 by special act of Congress, the Grand Lodge of Georgia, which was subject to its jurisdiction, and the officers of such Grand Lodge were parties complainant in an amended petition in this litigation commenced in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia. The defendants were the officers of the Grand Lodge in Georgia of the other body, who had made application to the court in which this suit was commenced to be incorporated as a domestic corporation of Georgia under the name and style of "The Grand Lodge Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, jurisdiction of Georgia." The petition filed in the cause recited the organization of the order of the plaintiffs substantially as heretofore stated, and the defendants were alleged to be wrongfully attempting to incorporate under a name which infringed that of plaintiffs' order, and to be unlawfully styling themselves Knights of Pythias, and to be fraudulently using the insignia, emblems, etc., of the plaintiffs' order. The averments of the petition and the amended petition as to damage sustained by the alleged unlawful acts of the defendants and their associates were stated in general terms to constitute a wrong and injury to petitioners and to the membership in Georgia and to be a fraud upon the public. The relief prayed was in substance a permanent injunction enjoining the prosecution of the application for incorporation, and the use by the defendants and the members of the subordinate lodges under their jurisdiction of the name Knights of

Pythias and of other names, insignia, emblems, etc., which would be like or a colorable imitation of those in use by the plaintiffs' order.

By their answer the defendants put the plaintiffs to proof of the material averments of the petition, set up the origin, growth and purposes of the order of which they were members and especially stated that it was confined to the "negro race and the Asiatic races." The incorporation of the order under the general incorporation act of Congress of 1870 was also averred, and the claim was made of lawful right to the use of the names, signs, symbols, emblems, insignia and the other paraphernalia adopted by the corporation, and the good faith of the corporation and all concerned in the matter was averred., It was further stated that the membership of the order in the United States aggregated 80,747 and in the State of Georgia 11,805, and that there never had been an attempt to confuse the order with that of which the plaintiffs were members and that no such confusion in fact had ever arisen or could arise, the field of operation of the orders being absolutely different. Laches of the plaintiff was pleaded in bar of any relief on the ground that the existence of the order and its operations had been publicly known and was matter of common knowledge for many years.

The case came on for hearing on a motion for preliminary injunction, and after hearing the evidence and argument of counsel the court denied an injunction and quashed a preliminary restraining order. The plaintiff took the case by a bill of exceptions to the Supreme Court of Georgia. That court in disposing of it referred to the fact that the Supreme Lodge of the order represented by plaintiffs was a corporation of the District of Columbia and that by amendment of the petition it had been joined as a plaintiff. It further stated:

"That the defendants have been operating and are