Opinion ID: 2593799
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 18

Heading: Mediation Agreement

Text: The Owners next contend that the Association breached its fiduciary duties by failing to implement a plan for voting on assessments, approved in mediation prior to filing this action. Before the lawsuit was filed, the parties attempted to resolve their differences by mediation. As part of the process, there was a joint committee formed to review resident fees. The committee consisted of residents and Board members. The committee was charged with examining the various charges and formulating a ballot to conduct a vote of the condominium residents as to whether they agreed or disagreed with the charges and to see if there were any services that could be dropped without affecting the overall services of the Village. Overall, the majority of residents voted that the charges on most items were fair and voted overwhelmingly against dropping the emergency call system, the Wellness Center, and the Bethel College fees. During the mediation process, the Board and an owner's attorney negotiated the amended and restated declarations. It was agreed that residents would be permitted to vote on all assessments and that future increases in the residents' assessments would be limited to cost-of-living unless resident approval was first obtained. From the record it is unclear what effect the vote would have. In voting on the assessments, residents indicated that they believed the replacement/reserve assessments were too high. The Board agreed that the reserve levels were adequate and the assessments were reduced. The Owners contend that the mediation agreement provided that the Owners were to be allowed to cast a binding vote on the entire monthly assessment. The Owners assert that the vote taken was in the form of an opinion poll, and they were not allowed to ask questions about the reserve and replacement account. The Owners contend that the Board breached its fiduciary duty by not complying with the mediation agreement. The Owners have failed to include a copy of the mediation agreement in the record on appeal. An appellant has the duty to designate a record sufficient to establish the claimed error. Without an adequate record, the claim of alleged error fails. In re B.M.B., 264 Kan. 417, 435, 955 P.2d 1302 (1998). Assertions in an appellate brief are not sufficient to satisfy inadequacies in the record on appeal. Hill v. Farm Bur. Mut. Ins. Co., 263 Kan. 703, 706, 952 P.2d 1286 (1998). This court cannot review the defendant's compliance with the mediation agreement because the agreement was not included in the record.