IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR BALTIMORE CITY, MARYLAND FREDERICK GRESOV,
Plaintiff, v.
Case No. 24-C-11-006415
CATHERINE RANDALL, Defendant. _____________________________ /
REPORTER'S OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS (Excerpt - Court's Memorandum, Opinion, and Ruling) Baltimore, Maryland Thursday, August 30, 2012
BEFORE: HONORABLE LAWRENCE P. FLETCHER-HILL, Associate Judge APPEARANCES: For the Plaintiff: GEOFFREY W. WASHINGTON, ESQ. DAVID APPLEFELD, ESQ., For the Defendant Catherine Randall: KURT J. FISCHER, ESQ. MELISSA L. MACKIEWICZ, ESQ.
*recorded digitally* Transcribed by: CHARLES F. MADDEN, Official Court Reporter 515 Courthouse East 111 North Calvert Street Baltimore, Maryland 21202 1
T A B L E
OF
C O N T E N T S P a g e
Memorandum, Opinion and Ruling
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P R O C E E D I N G S
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(3:58 p.m.)
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(Excerpt - Memorandum, Opinion and Ruling of the Court.) THE CLERK:
All rise.
The Circuit Court for
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Baltimore City resumes, the Honorable Lawrence P.
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Fletcher-Hill presiding.
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THE COURT:
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(Pause.)
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Thank you.
Be seated, please.
MEMORANDUM, OPINION AND RULING THE COURT:
All right.
I've had the
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opportunity to hear the evidence in this case, which is
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the first portion, bifurcated, of the various claims
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brought by the Plaintiff, Frederick Gresov.
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portion of the case, I am deciding the issues
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surrounding the accounting that the Defendant,
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Catherine Randall, agreed to provide and did provide
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through Mr, Bondroff and the legal issues and potential
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relief that is associated with the accounting.
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In this
The other claims we will discuss after my
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decision in this part, how they will proceed from this
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point forward.
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Counsel, I appreciate very much the efforts
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of all of you, both the three of you and also Mr.
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Applefeld who has been here in and out, in presenting 2
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the case very ably and in your paper which have been
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very helpful in understanding the issues.
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X apologize if this decision is a little
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disjointed at times,
I prefer to render the decision
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from the bench because you get it sooner.
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something under advisement, especially something as
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complex as this case, as soon as the information is no 8
longer fresh in my mind takes much longer to recreate
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subsequently.
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This case, of course, involves many family
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law issues and takes me back to the year I spent in
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Family a few years ago and reminds me of the
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difficulties in litigation when I see two parties
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before me, particularly sitting close to each other but
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with a wide gulf between them because of what has
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happened.
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As tempting as it is for me to try to repair
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some of the damage, it's very difficult in cases of
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this sort.
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at its core money, perhaps the best X can do is to
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decide the case as ably and fairly and accurately as
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possible and then hope that from here there is some
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process of improvement in the relationships that are
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involved.
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And particularly where this case involves
In very basic terms, I find as a matter of 3
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fact —
well, actually, before that, let me say that
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all of my findings of fact that I will make in this
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case are based on the evidence in the case and my
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judgments concerning the credibility of the witnesses
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who have testified here in the trial.
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As basic background, this case concerns an
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account created pursuant to the Uniform Transfers to
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Minors Act originally created in Pennsylvania in 1991,
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later transferred to Maryland. Although it is not essential to the outcome
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of the case, the account was created, I find, with the
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assets of the Defendant, Catherine Randall, and her
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parents and did not have as it sources assets that came
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directly from Winston Gresov or from members of his
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family. With the exception of some cash contributions
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to the account, most of the account was funded by
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contributions of stock.
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examined in detail all of the holdings, it was
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established with very low basis —
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which ended up having very substantial value in the
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account.
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And although I haven't
low cost basis stock
I will get to the specific issues of
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transactions in the account in a moment,
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general terms, the account was maintained with Ms. 4
But in very
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of the expenses of Ms. Charles.
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amounts are not exact, those notations
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contemporaneously made are indicative of her intention
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in handling the account and refute or detract from any
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conclusion that she was operating in order to punish
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either Rick Gresov or Winston Gresov.
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{Pause.)
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THE COURT:
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And although the
Although not essential to my
conclusions, I do not credit the testimony of Rick
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Gresov.
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of this account by his own account of an incident that
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occurred when he was about 13 years old and that he had
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knowledge at that point of a suggestion or an
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allegation that the account was being used
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inappropriately.
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I find that he had knowledge of the existence
While he in his testimony has tried to
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explain his steps in later years towards getting access
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to this account, that testimony is not credible,
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Because if it were his belief that he had a large sum
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of money available to pay for his college education, he
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would have first attempted to access that money at the
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time of his college education. And second he would
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have approached it in a different way once he reached
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the end of that college education and felt that he
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might be able to access these funds in order to pay off 22
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the indebtedness from that education. His actions in bringing this case coincide
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with the very bitter dispute between his parents over
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issues of child support and perhaps other custody
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issues, I don't know. And given the manner in which he approached
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the demand first set in this case and not seeking to
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simply get information or resolve the matter, I
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conclude that his actions were related to and wrapped
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up with the emotional involvement in his father's
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disputes with his mother.
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Now, those are not essential to my
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conclusions in this case'.
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were in fact inappropriate, the fact that he did not —
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does not act in good faith in seeking to enforce them
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would not matter.
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fact Ms. Randall had mishandled the account.
He'd be entitled to relief if in
But it may influence the other issues in this
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case.
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in this court.
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Because if the disbursements
And that is my conclusion based on his testimony
Based on all these findings and my
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conclusions of law, I conclude that Ms. Randall has
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provided an accounting of all transactions in the
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account, that all those transactions are permissible
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under the Uniform Transfers for Minors Act, and that 23
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Mr, Frederick Gresov is not entitled to any relief with
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respect to the accounting.
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Now, counsel, we have in this case still the
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other claims and the limitations'
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I've suggested,
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M r , Gresov's knowledge with respect to the limitations'
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issues.
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take them up as a matter of motions in order to decide
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how we schedule the other issues in the case.
issue.
As I think
I have been through the findings about
I can take those up now if counsel prefers to
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do that.
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to proceed with respect to the other claims?
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We can
I'll take suggestions of counsel how you want
MR. WASHINGTON:
I'd just say that we would
probably just respond to subsequent filings.
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THE COURT:
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Mr. Fischer?
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MR. FISCHER:
All right.
We would be prepared to file a
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motion as to the other claims based on the Court's
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findings on the accounting issue.
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THE COURT:
Right.
Well, why don't you have
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some discussion about i t .
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this proceeding and my decision made today.
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for now it's an interlocutory order in the case because
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it doesn't dispose of all the claims.
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I'll enter an order based on It'll be,
But I'm in a little bit of tenuous position because the case isn't officially especially assigned,
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But I'm quite confident that Judge Holland or Judge
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Pierson would be happy to have me see it through, given
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the extent of involvement to this point.
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But at this point I cleared the scheduling
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with Judge Pierson to this point.
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discuss it.
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letter how you think you should proceed, or the
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Defendant files a motion, that’s fine.
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courtesy copy of those and we'll have a discussion, if
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But why don't you
If you either want to report jointly in a
Just give me a
necessary, about scheduling. I'm in civil for the rest of this year.
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So
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if the other claims were to go to trial, the chances
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are that I could not do them because I don't think they
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would necessarily occur in time.
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you all have some discussion, there’s either a
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resolution or it gets resolved by motion.
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MR. FISCHER:
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MR, WASHINGTON:
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THE COURT:
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But it may be that
All right?
Yes, Your Honor. Yes, Your Honor.
All right.
Thank you very much,
counsel.
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I'll be in recess.
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THE CLERK:
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(The foregoing matter concluded at 3:40 p.m.)
All rise.
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REPORTER’S CERTIFICATE I, Charles F. Madden, an Official Court Reporter of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, do hereby certify that the proceedings in the matter of Frederick Gresov versus Catherine Randall, Case Number 24-C-11-006415, on August 30, 2012, before the Honorable Lawrence P . FletcherHill, Associate Judge, were recorded digitally. I further certify that the page numbers 1 through 25 constitute the official transcript of an excerpt of the proceedings as transcribed by me to the within typewritten matter in a complete and accurate manner. In Witness Whereof,
I have affixed my
signature this 2ndth day of September, 2012.
Charles F. Madden Official Court Reporter
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