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. at L. 98, chap. 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 and style stated in the certificate; . . .' The life of the corporation thus created, it would seem, expired by limitation in 1890. On June 29, 1894 [28 Stat. at L. 96, chap. 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.