The litigation of 1919 failed to uncover that the five Directors of that date were a non-legal ecclesiastical group that had operated for a while under Mrs. Eddy's directions in the Manual. Also that when the original fifth "director" passed on in 1912 he could not be replaced either under the 1892 Deed of Trust or under the Manual, for the latter specified that such vacancy could be filled only, "after the candidate is approved by the Pastor Emeritus".

At that date (1919) the only Manuals being made available by the then directors, conveniently for them, omitted to name Mrs. Eddy, or anyone else, as Pastor Emeritus in the list of Church Officers, despite the forty or more references in the text to this pastor's un-abrogated functions.

Mrs. Eddy's further legal deeds, involving the Board of Directors after 1903, addressed carefully the same original four Derectors, emphasizing the distinction she needed to establish between the four and the five.