Questions about Jurisdiction as to Degrees

[wjdevans]

I have been studying Title IV - Chapter 5 and am thoroughly confused.

I am not really grasping the terms Personal Jurisdiction and Territorial Jurisdiction.

My brother lives in Houston. He wants to Petition my lodge. (My dad is a PM at my lodge)

We are in a seperate county from his domicile and about 100 miles away.

We would love to have him, but does he fall under the Territorial Jurisdiction of other lodges.

Is a Waiver of Jurisdiction appropriate here?

Does Article 452 cover this? : A petitioner who is eligible to apply for the degrees or for advancement in this Grand Jurisdiction may present his petition therefore to any Lodge in this Grand Lodge.

 

[Bro. Stewart P.M.]

My understanding is that as long as the petitioner is no more than one county outside of the jurisdiction of the lodge being petitioned, it is okay. I think that there is some additonal steps to take beyond those limitations.

I lived in Ellis County when I petitioned my home lodge in Dallas County. For me it was okay beacuse the two counties shared a common border. I think that this has more to do with time and distance than anything else.

 

[Beathard]

Ask the secretary of the lodge he is wanting to join. If he doesn't know, he cam easily make a call and find out. Why get him to do it? Because he is the one that will eventually need to know the info anyway.

 

[Bill Lins]

My brother lives in Houston. He wants to Petition my lodge.

We are in a seperate county from his domicile and about 100 miles away.

We would love to have him, but does he fall under the Territorial Jurisdiction of other lodges.

Yes.

Is a Waiver of Jurisdiction appropriate here?

Yes.

Does Article 452 cover this? : A petitioner who is eligible to apply for the degrees or for advancement in this Grand Jurisdiction may present his petition therefore to any Lodge in this Grand Lodge.

To begin with, Art. 452 states that one may petition any Lodge in Texas. If the Lodge is not in the county of his domicile (residence) or a contiguous (sharing a border) county, then a Waiver of Jurisdiction would be required.

The correct procedure would be for your brother to petition your Lodge. At that point your Lodge would have personal jurisdiction but not territorial jurisdiction. After he has submitted his petition, your Secretary would then send a request for Waiver of Jurisdiction to the oldest Lodge in your brother's county of residence (Art. 458). In Harris County, that would be Holland #1. Once that Lodge has approved the request & sent the waiver to your Lodge, your Lodge can assign an investigating committee and begin to process the petition.

 

[Beathard]

Bill, any idea why it is the oldest?

 

[Bill Lins]

Bill, any idea why it is the oldest?

Uhhh, because the big blue book sez so? :wink: My guess is that they had to pick one Lodge, rather than requiring all the Lodges in the county of domicile plus all the Lodges in surrounding counties to waive jurisdiction. Other than the oldest, I don't know what criteria they would have used to decide which Lodge held jurisdiction.

 

[Beathard]

Seems like as good a reason as any other. Just seems like it could be a lot of work for one secretary.