The Case of the Nervous Accomplice

Chapter 4

George C. Lutts, sitting at the head of the mahogany table, tapped gently with the gavel and said in his dry, rasping voice, “This meeting will please come to order.”

The men seated at the table straightened expectantly.

Lutts said, “This is a regular directors’ meeting, at which time we are to consider the offer of the Aurora Paving and Excavating Company for tearing down the house remaining on our holdings, moving away the hill, and paving the road which will give us access to the new freeway.

“Before we start in on this business of the meeting, however, I have an announcement to make.” He paused, cleared his throat, said, “I have as of this day disposed of my entire interest in the corporation. My stock has been purchased by Mr. Perry Mason. I wish to introduce Mr. Mason, the lawyer, and then announce my resignation as president of the board.

“I am going to ask Mr. Mason to say a few words. I also wish the minutes to show that Mr. Enright Harlan is attending the meeting by special invitation. Mr. Harlan represents Mrs. Roxy Claffin, who owns property on the north. Now then, I’m going to ask Mr. Mason—”

“Just a moment. I rise to a point of order,” Ezekiel Elkins rasped.

“All right, what’s the point?” Lutts asked impatiently.

Elkins scraped back his chair and got to his feet, a dogged, lantern-jawed individual in his early fifties, with sharp, suspicious eyes, sparse hair, a florid face, and the habit of shoving his hands down deep in his trousers pockets whenever he talked.

“How much did you get for your stock?”

“None of your business,” Lutts snapped.

“I thought we had a gentlemen’s agreement that if any offer was made for our stock we’d each give the other directors the first refusal.”

“I didn’t sign any such contract.”

“I’m not talking about a contract. I’m talking about a gentlemen’s agreement.”

“I didn’t make any such agreement.”

The others murmured protest.

“It was agreed right here around this very table. We talked it over when we organized the company.”

“Someone suggested that it would be a good idea,” Lutts said, “but there wasn’t any definite agreement.”

“There was an agreement,” Elkins said doggedly.

“Well, my stock’s been sold,” Lutts snapped angrily.

“And you won’t tell us what you got for it?”

“No.”

Elkins turned to the other members of the board. “Move we accept Lutts’ resignation as president and director,” he said, “on the ground that he is no longer qualified to sit as director on account of his not being a stockholder on the records of the company.”

“Second the motion,” Regerson Neffs snapped.

“I haven’t given my resignation, yet,” Lutts said.

“You can’t sit on the board. You aren’t qualified. You have to be a stockholder to be a member of the board of directors,” Elkins said.

“I might get a share from Herb Doxey, just to qualify me,” Lutts went on. “I’m still interested in—”

“It has been moved and seconded to accept the resignation of George C. Lutts,” Elkins said. “All those in favor signify by saying aye.”

Four voices said, “Aye.”

“So ordered,” Elkins said. “Who’s going to be president of the company?”

“I move Mr. Cleve Rector be elected president,” Regerson Neffs said.

“I move Ezekiel Elkins be president,” Herbert Doxey said.

“That leaves us two and two,” Neffs said. “That isn’t going to—”

“I’m voting for Elkins,” Rector interrupted.

“You are?” Neffs said.

“That’s right.”

Doxey said, “Under the bylaws we can only elect a chairman to act as presiding officer until the next meeting of the stockholders. The stockholders elect the president.”

“We’ll have a stockholders’ meeting right after this,” Elkins said. “Now, let’s hear from Perry Mason. All right, Mr. Mason, do you have something to say to us?”

“I just wanted to announce that I am a stockholder in the corporation,” Mason said, “and as such I am interested in anything that is done by you directors.”

“Whom are you representing?” Elkins demanded.

“The stock is in my name.”

“You’re representing somebody,” Elkins said. “You didn’t drop down out of a clear sky and buy stock in this company without any previous negotiations and at such a price Lutts didn’t dare let the deal slip through his fingers by giving us first chance at the stock, the way we promised each other we would.”

Cleve Rector said, “He’s representing that Claffin woman, of course. If you ask me, she’s taking altogether too much of an interest in the affairs of this corporation. She sneaked in and purchased her property right out from under us. She—”

“Now, just a minute,” Enright Harlan interrupted, getting to his feet. “I’m representing Mrs. Claffin. I resent having things like that said about her, and I happen to know that she is not Mr. Mason’s client.”

“What makes you think I have a client?” Mason asked.

“Don’t be silly,” Harlan said.

“Of course, he’d deny it anyway,” Rector said. “I think this man, Mason, is a Trojan horse. I think anything he says should be viewed with suspicion. I think he’s simply trying to manipulate the affairs of this corporation for the benefit of Roxy Claffin. I don’t think he’s a bona fide stockholder. I don’t want him on the board of directors.”

Mason said impatiently, “I don’t want to go on the board of directors. I want to address the directors on a matter of business.”

“Well, I guess you’ve got a right to do that,” Elkins said.

Mason said, “You gentlemen seem to be obsessed with the idea that you’re going to grade down that hill and level the property.”

“Well, why not,” Elkins said. “That was the idea of getting the property in the first place.”

“All right,” Mason said. “When you get done, what do you have? You have a flat property. You are going to have drainage problems. Now, I believe that hill can be terraced and turned into attractive residential property. I think the house that’s on the hill can be renovated, that a big outdoor balcony can be put on it and glassed in, that the place will make an attractive restaurant and night club.”

Mason paused. The directors looked at him in open mouthed astonishment.

“You’re crazy,” Lutts said finally.

“In which event,” Mason went on as though he had not been interrupted, “we would, of course, be in a position to sue Mrs. Claffin, who owns the property on the north, for having invaded our right of lateral support.”

“Lateral support? What’s that?” Lutts asked.

“That is the right of all property to have the natural, normal support of the adjoining property. I notice that Mrs. Claffin has gone ahead with excavations which have not only gone right up to the boundary line of the property, but have even passed the boundary line of the property and have undermined the foundations of the house on the hill. This has caused the Sylvan Glade Development Company great and irreparable damages. I personally feel that before this corporation makes any agreement relating to leveling that hill, it should first investigate the possibilities of turning the property into an attractive, exclusive hillside residential property, and file suit against Mrs. Claffin for the unlawful violation of our lateral support.

“I wish to call to the attention of the directors that there have been a series of dry years, that this level property is immediately adjacent to a natural drainage, which, in view of developments to the north and west, can well become a raging torrent in the event of an unusually wet year. The water would then sweep down across our property, if it were leveled, cutting great channels and causing enormous damage. As it is now, this hill is attractive, artistic, and, above all, even in the wettest years it will be dry. There was a time when the steepness of the hill detracted from the value of the property. In view of the fact that it is now possible to come in on the freeway, take the turn-off on the edge of the Claffin property, follow that around to our property, and terrace the hill, we could make a very fine residential property.”

“I think you’ve got something,” Cleve Rector said. “I want it investigated.”

“Now, wait a minute, wait a minute,” Enright Harlan shouted. “This is simply blackmail. You see now why Mr. Mason got in here. He’s trying to drum up a lawsuit. In the first place, if you people don’t make some agreement with Mrs. Claffin, you can’t even use the roadway across her property. She’s only willing to dedicate that for a highway in the event your property is leveled and in the event she receives a reasonable contribution toward the cost of the dedication.”

“You mean she wants money from us?” Lutts asked.

“You want a road from her, don’t you?” Harlan asked.

Ezekiel Elkins turned to Mason. “What’s this doctrine of lateral support you’re talking about?”

Harlan said, “Just a minute, gentlemen. If there’s going to be any dissertation on your legal rights, I want to have an opportunity to get a lawyer here and—”

“Shut up,” Elkins said. “You’re not a stockholder here, you’re not a director. You’re here by sufferance. Your interests are opposed to ours and always have been. Go ahead, Mr. Mason. What do you mean by lateral support?”

“Under the original common law,” Mason said, “property was absolutely entitled to lateral support. That doctrine has now been changed somewhat by Section 832 of the civil code, but under that section, before any person can make an excavation which will in any way damage the lateral support of the adjoining property, it is necessary that a written notice be given to the adjoining property owner. Did Mrs. Claffin ever give this corporation any notice?”

“She did not,” Rector said.

“Now, wait a minute,” Harlan interposed. “Don’t get stampeded.”

“Let’s see a lawyer,” Regerson Neffs interrupted.

“We’ve got one here,” Rector said. “I move we adjourn.”

“Second the motion,” Herbert Doxey said.

“Now, wait a minute,” Harlan insisted. “We’ve all got a problem to consider. We—”

“Rise to a point of order,” Regerson Neffs interrupted. “The motion to adjourn is always in order. It’s been duly seconded. Put it to a vote.”

“All those in favor of adjournment signify by saying aye,” Elkins snapped.

“Aye,” four voices said.

Chairs scraped back. “We’re adjourned,” Elkins said. “I want to talk with you, Mr. Mason.”

Enright Harlan pushed Elkins aside, confronted Mason. He was, Mason saw, a handsome man despite the fact that he was flushed and angry. He was tall, square-shouldered, slender-hipped, athletic. His grey eyes were sharp with anger. “Are you,” he shouted, “trying to turn an asset into a lawsuit?”

Mason grinned at him. “I’m turning a lawsuit into an asset,” he said, and walked away.