Screen Actors Guild president Richard Masur’s rulings against efforts to renew an investigation into an internal election last fall were overturned Aug. 9. Board member Eugene Boggs said he had achieved a “tremendous victory” in his effort to compel the guild to revive the probe. Boggs’ motions address his complaint that 55 fellow board members acted improperly in Jan. 1999 when they voted to quash further investigation of discrepancies in an election of members to the guild’s national executive committee. The matter will be taken up again at a meeting next month of SAG’s Western board members.
Masur claimed, “I’m fulfilling my duty as the presiding officer to rule out-of-order things that are frivolous or outside the bounds of what the board is there to do.” Masur said he acted on legal advice when he ruled against Boggs’ motions.
Boggs, a labor attorney, filed a six-page complaint against his colleagues alleging “serious misconduct” and “dereliction of fiduciary responsibilities” in their decision to set aside a special investigator’s conclusion that there likely was “intentional wrongdoing” in the Nov. 16, 1998 election. [Daily Variety 9/11/99]