12.3 Subject to the supervision of the Court to exercise powers of the Management Committee of the Church School Community for the purpose of convening an Extraordinary Meeting of the Church School Community to elect a Management Committee in accordance with the 1950 Rules.
5 It will be appreciated that the list of members of the Church School Community is needed for the trustees, in exercising the powers of the Management Committee of the Church School Community (pursuant to Order 12.3), to convene an extraordinary meeting of the Church School Community to elect a Management Committee in accordance with the 1950 Rules. The trustees, pursuant to the duty imposed upon them by Order 12.1, settled a provisional list of members of the Church School Community, that provisional list being exhibit MR2 to the affidavit of the First Plaintiff, Maksim Radmanovich, sworn 25 January 2002.
6 Disputes having arisen as to the correctness and completeness of the provisional list, those disputes were, pursuant to Order 12.2, referred to me for adjudication. The hearing of such adjudication was specially fixed to commence on 4 March 2002. However, on that date I was informed that the parties were not in agreement as to the effect of the order made on 15 October 2001, and that they proposed to approach Mr Justice Young in order to seek clarification of that order. The matter came before His Honour on 13 March 2002. On that date His Honour delivered ex tempore oral reasons concerning the effect of the reservation of liberty to apply, especially in contradistinction to a reservation of further consideration. His Honour on that date did not make any orders, but merely delivered reasons. His Honour said that the parties should return to the Master and have him deal with the matter according to law. His Honour ordered that the costs of the appearance before him on 13 March 2002 should be costs of the proceedings before the Master.
7 As a consequence of the reasons published by Mr Justice Young on 13 March 2002 the trustees revised the provisional list. That revised provisional list is annexure F to the affidavit of the Second Defendant, Nikola Lukic, sworn 12 April 2002.
8 The dispute as to the provisional list (as revised) is raised by the Plaintiffs in the affidavits of Maxim Radmanovich sworn 25 January 2002 and 13 May 2002.
9 I have had the benefit of receiving written outlines of submissions from Counsel for the respective parties. Those written submissions will be retained in the Court file. I would take this opportunity of here recording the considerable assistance given to me by Counsel for the respective parties, both in the written submissions and during the course of the hearing.
10 In paragraph 4.1 of the Defendant's submissions (being the amended outline of submissions dated 14 June 2002) it is stated that the starting point for the consideration of the material is the common ground between the parties as to who were members of the Community before the 1998 disputes arose. That common ground is evidenced by the list of members dated 5 June 1997 which is annexure A to the affidavit of Jovan Jaramaz sworn 29 January 2002. Subject to certain qualifications, the Trustees accept that that list is an accurate record of the persons who were members of the community as at 5 June 1997 (see affidavit of Nikola Lukic sworn 12 April 2002, paragraph 27).
11 For convenience, during the hearing both Counsel and myself worked from the list which was Schedule C to the amended outline of submissions of Counsel for the Defendants dated 14 June 2002. I shall in this judgment continue to use the numbering appearing in that list.
12 From the list prepared on 5 June 1997 the Trustees, in the revised list, have:
· Removed two persons who have resigned - Danilo Cukic (13) and Ilija Strinich (81).
· Removed one person who is deceased - Drago Opacic (65).
· Removed two persons who have been suspended under sentence from the Church Court - Jovan Djurasinovic (21) and the Second Plaintiff, Stevo Dobrich (25).
· Removed three persons who have been excommunicated under sentence from the Church Court - the First Plaintiff, Maksim Radmanovich (74), the Third Plaintiff, Drago Mijakovac (58) and Jovan Jaramaz (38).
· Added fourteen persons, who, according to records relied upon by the Plaintiffs, were members as at 8 March 1998.
· Added eleven persons, who, according to records in the possession of the Trustees, were members as at 8 March 1998.
13 For the reasons set forth in my oral judgment delivered during the course of the hearing on 14 June 2002 in respect to the objection by the Plaintiffs to the second sentence in paragraph 2 in the affidavit of Nikola Lukic sworn 12 June 2002 and to exhibit NL1, I rejected the evidence in relation to the aforesaid additional fourteen persons included in the Trustees' Revised List.
14 Upon the same basis the Plaintiffs objected to the second sentence in paragraph 3 of the same affidavit and to exhibit NL2 to that affidavit. For the same reasons as those set forth in respect to the earlier objection to paragraph 2 and to exhibit NL1, I rejected the evidence in relation to the aforesaid additional eleven persons included in the Trustees' Revised List.
15 Although the Defendants did not concede that the persons in the two groups identified in paragraphs 33b and 33c of the affidavit of Nikola Lukic were not members of the Community, in consequence of the ruling which I made concerning admissibility of evidence in respect to the application forms of those persons the Defendants did not thereafter assert that those persons should be included in the list of members of the Community.
16 In consequence, therefore, of my foregoing rejection of the evidence in respect to applications for membership by the persons in the two aforesaid groups, in my conclusion neither the fourteen persons who were added to the Trustee's Revised List and who are referred to in paragraph 2 of the aforesaid affidavit nor the eleven persons whose names are included in the Trustee's Revised List and who are referred to in paragraph 3 in the said affidavit are members of the Community.
17 In the event, however, that I be wrong in my foregoing conclusions, it is appropriate that I should record that of the foregoing fourteen persons, eight names were excised at the instance of the Defendants themselves, those being Novica Danilovic (2), Zeljko Dragic (3), Dusan Krstanovic (4), Mitar Miskovic (8), Vitomir Petrovic (9), Slobodan Popovic (10), Milos Radovanov (11), Bosko Skrbic (12).
18 It follows, therefore, that even if the totality of the fourteen persons not be removed for the reasons set forth in my judgment on admissibility of evidence of 14 June 2002, of those fourteen names the Defendants assert only six should remain, those six being Djordje Covic (1), Boro Lovric (5), Djuro Markovic (6), Dragan Markovic (7), Slobodan Stojanovic (13), Zeljke Sucevic (14).
19 Further, it should also be recorded that of the additional eleven names included in the Trustees' Revised List, two names were excised therefrom at the instance of the Defendants themselves, those being Slavoljub Kocic (6), Velimir Prodanovic (10). That is, of those eleven names the Defendants assert only nine should remain, those nine being Slobodan Bubalo (1), Zivota Djurdjevic (2), Djuro Draca (3), Nikola Grubic (4), Zarko Jaric (5), Mirko Mihic (7), Slobodan Pavlovic (8), Milan Perkovic (9), Bratislav Stankovic (11).
20 It follows, from the foregoing, that in my conclusion, of the Trustees' Revised List which is now presented to the Court, only the names of the first eighty-nine persons will be considered as being available to be members of the Community.