Scarbourough

Plaintiffs appeal herein from a judgment rendered after a trial of the special defenses of res judicata as set up in the separate answer of the defendant N. A. Ross, Jr., and the answer of the other defendants. By stipulation of the parties it was agreed that these issues should be first tried.

The first of these prior actions was filed on November 8, 1945, entitled “Security Somes Estate, a co-operative corporation, plaintiff, vs. Charles T. Beatley,” et al., defendants, ‘ being No. 507324 of the records of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Defendant N. A. Ross, Jr., was likewise joined as a defendant in said action. The complaint was verified in the name of the plaintiff corporation, hereinafter referred to as "Security, ’ ’ by Henry H. Hayden, as president, and N. B. Stadley, as secretary. It was entitled “Complaint for Declaratory Relief, Injunction and other Equitable Relief” and charged, among other things, that numerous named defendants, referred to therein as the Briggs Group, were shareholders, directors and officers of plaintiff corporation, were engaged in a conspiracy to control the membership of such corporation, direct its corporate affairs, obstruct its…