Keeping Fisticuffs Out of the Annual Meeting

It was surreal, recalls Alvin Wasserman, director of asset management for Fairfield Properties. At an annual meeting that was supposed to be routine, a unit-owner made allegations against one of the board members. Her husband became very upset. Insults flew until a shouting match erupted. Then it went to the next level. “The husband took the table where the board was sitting and flipped it towards them,” says Wasserman. “Then he threw it at the guy.” The meeting was shut down. 

“There’s no predicting,” says attorney Jeffrey Reich, a partner at Schwartz Sladkus Reich Greenberg Atlas. “Meetings I go to that I think will be horrible, go smoothly. And meetings I don’t expect to will break out into all kinds of nonsense.” 

He and other professionals can all recount instances of fisticuffs and handcuffs, anger and alcohol, and gadflies holding court and holding up ballot counts. “My favorite example is a Fifth Avenue building with very prominent people living there, and different factions seeking to take over the board,” says Reich, who was the board’s attorney. “Two older, very distinguished gentlemen got into a pushing match, poking each other in the ribs. And the attorney for the insurgents was in the middle of this, getting crushed.” Reich, who admits that he is “not a big guy,” had to jump in and separate them. 

There’s no set protocol for such flare-ups. In this case, the meeting continued. With others, you may want to shut down and clear the room. Calling in the police is the nuclear option that will have repercussions in ill will and morale. Having the intimidating presence of security may be almost as bad, but “in some extreme cases,” says Reich, the presence of security might be justified. 

That was true at a meeting attended by attorney Michael Manzi, a partner at Smith, Gambrell & Russell. “It was a large complex and a contentious election,” he recalls. “One person had been trying to get on the board year after year. She was there with her supporters in full force. The board president alleged at the meeting – while she was talking over him – that she had threatened his and his children’s lives. Pandemonium ensued. A group of young men [affiliated with the woman] proceeded to march in front of the dais back and forth in a threatening manner.” 

The management company had suspected something like this might occur. “So they had sent their largest, most imposing agent to the meeting,” Manzi says. “The building also had security.” The meeting ended without an incident. 

One specific piece of advice many professionals give that might help avoid arguments: try not to schedule the annual meeting while hallway/lobby renovations are being contemplated or are about to take place. “I have seen that some of the most hotly contested meetings are either right before or right after a hallway renovation or lobby renovation,” says Dan Wurtzel, president of FirstService Residential New York. 

With annual meetings, as with so many things in life, timing is everything.