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Lahmann v. Grand Aerie of Fraternal Order of Eagles10/12/2005
e Aerie because "sometimes only one sponsor is required" and "the emphasis was on obtaining new members and new member approval was being granted in almost all cases." As noted above, the trial court further found that the Eagles are primarily a social club. For purposes of this opinion, I assume that the trial court's findings are supported by the evidence.
The subsequent question of law posed by the statute's requirement is whether the legislature would have considered those facts as disqualifying circumstances for purposes of the exemption in ORS 30.675(2). Nothing in the text of the statute tells us that whether an organization "is in its nature distinctly private" is determined by nonselective membership requirements. In fact, the words of the statute require a different reading when given their ordinary meaning. The word "nature" in context means "(a) the essential character or constitution of something * * * [;] (b) the distinguishing qualities or properties of something * * *." Webster's Third New Int'l Dictionary 1507 (unabridged ed 2002). The word "distinctly" in context means "(b) with distinctness; not confusedly; without a blending or merging of one thing with another." Id. at 659. The word "private" in context means "not freely available to the public." Id. at 1804. Read together, the words of the statute describe an organization that is, in its essential character, not freely available to the public at large. The trial court found that the Eagles are "mainly a social club." The benefit of membership in the Eagles, therefore, is the ability to associate with other Eagles, i.e., private association. Regardless of whether the Eagles' membership policy is considered nonselective, the fact remains that one who joins the Eagles sets himself apart from the general public and, at that point--and only at that point--may participate in private initiation ceremonies, memorialized rituals, and weekly membership meetings. The Eagles are, by the common and ordinary meaning of the words, in their nature distinctly private.
In reaching a contrary conclusion, the trial court and the majority commit an error of statutory construction. Rather than construing the plain meaning of the act, the trial court and the majority essentially substitute the word "selective" for the word "private" in ORS 30.675(2). Moreover, they conflate subsections (1) and (2) of ORS 30.675. ORS 30.675(2) provides that an organization that offers its services to the public is exempt from the act if it is "in its nature distinctly private." Yet the trial court and the majority appear to assume that, if an organization offers its services to the public and is nonselective as to whom it offers its services, it cannot be "in its nature distinctly private." That reading effectively renders subsection (2) superfluous; if the only organizations that come within subsection (2) are organizations that do not offer services to the public under subsection (1)
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