Section 51: Application of chapter
Section 51. Nothing contained in this chapter shall be so construed as to affect or apply to—
(a) Grand or subordinate lodges of societies, orders or associations doing business in the commonwealth on December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and fifty-eight, which provide benefits exclusively through local or subordinate lodges;
(b) Orders, societies or associations which admit to membership only persons engaged in one or more crafts or hazardous occupations, in the same or similar lines of business, insuring only their own members, their families and descendants of members, and the ladies' societies or ladies' auxiliaries to such orders, societies or associations;
No society which, by the provisions of this section, is exempt from the requirements of this chapter, except any society described in clause (b) of this section, shall give or allow, or promise to give or allow, to any person any compensation for procuring new members.
Every society which provides for benefits in case of death or disability resulting solely from accident, and which does not obligate itself to pay natural death or sick benefits, shall have all of the privileges and be subject to all the applicable provisions and regulations of this chapter except that the provisions thereof relating to medical examination, valuations of benefit certificates, and incontestability, shall not apply to such society.
The commissioner may require from any society or association, by examination or otherwise, such information as will enable him to determine whether such society or association is exempt from the provisions of this chapter.