DAVID E. ROBINSON, et al, pro se______________________
Plaintiff
v.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, et al______
Defendants

DEFINITION: opinion. 1. A court's written statement explaining its decision in a given case, usu. including the statement of facts, point of law, rationale, and dictates. -- Also termed judicial opinion. -- (Black's Law, 7th Ed., p.1119).

A court can only render a decision on what has been brought to the bench. The Court may, in its analysis, set forth opinions based on its findings, and these opinions can often be of greater importance than the court's decision itself.

Consider Chief Justice Rugg's opinions on the estoppels, as a case in point. His opinions have been ignored by the Boston Officials and overlooked by the Field since the Massachusetts High Court's decision regarding the CSPS's takeover by TMC in 1921.

The Court found the following facts to be true:

1. ...that the three trustees were to carry on the business upon their own responsibility without interference from the directors of the church;

2. ...that the trustees. mandate was not transferable to others;

3. ...that when the element of personal choice is found, the exercise of that power must be confined to the person or persons selected and is not transmissible. (Sells v. Delgard, 186 Mas. 25,27).

4. ...that the mandate to carry on the business was authorized by Mrs. Eddy and not by the Board;

5. ...that the estoppel clauses are binding. But the court failed to see that an estoppel terminated the five-member ecclesiastical Board at the Annual Meeting of June, 1911.

6. ...that the four-member Board of Directors was established on Sept. 1, 1892, but it was not. [it was established 22 days later on the 23rd.]

7. ...that there were two different board functions and powers and therefore two Boards. [this contradicted the director's claim that the fiduciary and ecclesiastical boards were one and the same.]

8. ...that the authorship of the Manual is vested in Mrs. Eddy and adapted to The Mother Church only.

9. ...that "there can now, since the decease of Mrs. Eddy, be no change in the provisions of the Church Manual in all its terms."
10. ...that the three trustees of the Publishing Society had the sole responsibility to prepare and issue the items coming under the Publishing Society.s sphere.

11. ...that if the Pastor Emeritus did not elect to fill a vacancy in the Publishing Society trusteeship, the remaining trustees shall do so, unless Mrs. Eddy objects to their choice.

12. ...that all the functions of the First Members and Executive Members were transferred to the Directors of The Mother Church in 1908 and were in effect only while Mrs. Eddy was here to give her approval and consent.

13. ...that the Board of Directors transact only the business of The Mother Church.

14. ...that the Master had sustained the Publishing Trustees in all three of their major contentions.

15. ..that rules and by-laws were adopted by the church in 1895.

16. ...that all the officers of the church shall be elected by the Board of Directors subject to Mrs. Eddy's approval.

17. ...that .The Mother Church. and "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts" are not the same churches.

18. ...that the chief business of the Publishing Society Trustees is the propagation of religious publications to promote and extend the religion of Christian Science as taught by Mrs. Eddy.

19. ...that the trusts in question cannot be modified or revoked in the absence of a reservation of an express power by the donor to that end.

20. ...that delivery, and acceptance, and performance, establish an executed trust that must be construed and applied according to its terms. (Crawford v. Nies, 224 Mas. 474. Eliot v. Trinity Church, 232 Mas. 517).

21. ...that the decision mandate of the trust regarding the dismissal of a Publishing Society Trustee came to an end when the First Members were abolished as a part of the Church.

22. ...that the directors were not authorized to exercise the functions of the First Members.

23. ...that the facts the Master found were accepted in their entirety and approved by the Supreme Court without dissent.

24. ...that there are two classes of church functionaries, directors and members.

25. ...that duties were given to the donees according to their respective positions in the church.

26. ...that the trustees were "to prepare Bible Lessons or Lesson Sermons to be read in the Christian Science churches."