Opinion ID: 2289995
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: the alleged conspiracy to conceal

Text: The chancellor adopted also the proposed finding of fact in regard to the alleged conspiracy to color and falsify information furnished to the members of the association or to conceal and withhold it from the members. The finding adopted by the chancellor, slightly edited, is as follows. There is no evidence of any conversation, discussion or request on the part of any defendant director, any Association employee, the defendants Hooper and Robinson, or the defendant Kendrick, wherein any of said parties suggested or requested that any one of said persons or any other person, conspire together to conceal, withhold, color or falsify any information regarding any transaction of the Association from the members of the Association. Nor is there any evidence that any of said persons or combination of persons at any time did in fact conceal, withhold, color or falsify from or to the membership any relevant information in connection with any transaction involving the affairs of the Association. The members of the Association were at all times fully and adequately apprised of all relevant information regarding the Association's operation through various publications of the Association, including the monthly newsletter and the financial statements prepared by the auditor and published in the annual report which was printed and circulated to the entire membership. Each year an annual meeting was held wherein financial and general operating reports were made to the members by the president and the secretary-treasurer-general manager. Local district meetings, attended by at least one member of the board of directors and representatives of the Association management, were also held to keep the members informed on market conditions and Association operations. There is no evidence that in any of said publications or at any of said meetings information to which the members were entitled was at any time concealed or misrepresented. Within a reasonable time after the Dugan investigation had been completed, a 43-page summary of Dean Dugan's report was prepared and read to all interested members at district meetings specifically called for this purpose. And at the same meeting, an 18-page report fully explaining the history of the Embassy acquisition, sale, and discount on the purchase note was also read and fully explained to the members. The chancellor thought the case had been ably tried and appellants' counsel conceded they had indeed enjoyed a full and open hearing. We agree on both counts. It occurs to us, however, that the appellants, in many instances, seem to have lost sight of the fact that what we said in Parish was based entirely upon the allegations in their voluminous bill of complaint and not upon evidence. At trial they elected to provide most of that evidence through the testimony of a number of the defendants (appellees), including Remsberg, Hooper and Kendrick, and employees Click and Snyder, all of whom were clearly adverse witnesses, and by the testimony of Merrigan and Clifford who, while perhaps not adverse in the statutory sense, Code (1965 Repl. Vol.), Art. 35, § 9, could hardly be called friendly. Mrs. Parish, Wharff and Wenger were the only appellants who gave testimony. A vast quantity of documentary evidence found its way into the transcript. Robert M. Goldman, Esq., executor and quondam attorney for Robinson, gave testimony on behalf of Robinson's estate. The deposition of Col. Hughes was admitted. It was stipulated that Dean Dugan, if called, would testify that the Robinson and Hooper releases were fair and justified and were in the best interest of the Association. It was stipulated also that each of the directors who did not give testimony would say, if called, that he did not, at any time, have a conversation with Wayne Kendrick or any other person in respect of the submission of false or misleading information to the Association membership or the concealment of material information from the Association membership. The appellants are bound by most of the testimony, Callahan v. Reynolds, 254 Md. 625 (1969), and in respect of the remainder very little, if any of it, seems to have been rebutted, contradicted or discredited. Appellants contend, of course, that the evidence would support their own proposed findings of fact. We express no opinion in this regard but it can hardly be doubted that even if the evidence could be said to support the findings of fact they have proposed it also supports the findings made by the chancellor and our examination of this long and tedious record has fully persuaded us that his judgment in this regard was not clearly erroneous. Indeed we cannot recall a single finding of fact which has been challenged by the appellants as being clearly erroneous. This leads us to the question whether the chancellor applied the proper standard of care in his appraisal of the conduct of the directors.