Hungarian Freedom Fighters Federation, Inc. v. Samson

• Decision Date: 20 July 1961
• Citation: 30 Misc.2d 354,219 N.Y.S.2d 348
• Parties: HUNGARIAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS FEDERATION, INC., Petitioner, v. Joseph SAMSON and Kalman Potoczky, Respondents.
• Court: New York Supreme Court

Page 348

219 N.Y.S.2d 348

30 Misc.2d 354

HUNGARIAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS FEDERATION, INC., Petitioner, v. Joseph SAMSON and Kalman Potoczky, Respondents.

Supreme Court, Special and Trial Term, New York County, Part XVI.

July 20, 1961.

Kramer, Marx, Greenlee & Backus, New York City (Edw. D. Toole, Jr., New York City, of counsel), for petitioner.

Martin M. Mandell, New York City (S. W. Gilman, New York City, of counsel), for respondents.

CHARLES A. LORETO, Justice.

Petition pursuant to section 964 of the Penal Law of New York seeking to enjoin respondents from using the name 'Hungarian Freedom Fighters Federation, Inc.'

Petitioner was organized as a membership corporation under the New York Membership Corporations Law in March, 1957.

It is claimed that the respondents Samson and Potoczky have no official connection with the organization and are unlawfully promoting and advertising charter plane flights, using its name as sponsor. The petition is signed by one Bela Kiraly as its president .

On submission of the petition and the cross application for an injunction, the court stated in its decision that from a reading of the affidavits and exhibits submitted it was not clearly established who of the contending indivisuals had a standing as director or officer to seek the relief requested on behalf of the corporation and therefore the court directed an early trial of the issues raised .

As adjournments were requested by the attorneys for the parties because of the absence of one or another from the country, the trial of this matter was not held until recently.

The dispute is essentially one between Bela Kiraly on the one hand and Joseph Samson with other Hungarian refugees on the other. Kiraly asserts that Samson has no standing in the organization because he was not elected as one of its directors at a meeting of the board on May 5, 1959. Samson contends that he was duly elected director on that date, has been serving as such to the present time and moreover, at a meeting of the board duly held on February 20, 1960 Kiraly was expelled as a member of the corporation and removed as a director and officer and therefore that he lacks the right to speak in behalf of the corporation and to institute this proceeding.

The certificate of incorporation of petitioner recites its purposes to be:

'(A) To work toward the restoration of freedom, human rights and independence in Hungary, as well as to encourage and further individual and national freedom in all Europe, and elsewhere by the use of all peaceful means whatsoever including, without limitation, the exertion of moral forces and other forces, and by keeping the people of Hungary accurately informed of world events through any media of communication.

'(B) To help Hungarian exiles and refugees to maintain themselves in useful occupations during their absence from their homeland, and to come to know the people of the United States and other free nations; and to make available facilities whereby such exiles and refugees can contribute to the cause of Hungarian freedom '(C) To perpetuate the spirit and ideals which motivated the Hungarian Freedom Fighters in the defense of their homeland, and to ensure that the memory of the deeds and courage of the Hungarian heroes be preserved;'

Also it is authorized to solicit and receive funds for its objects and purposes. ^*

It was approved by a Justice of the Supreme Court of New York on March 5, 1957. Its subscribers are Kiraly, one Greenlee, a New York attorney, and four other persons of the latter's office. Kiraly is the only subscriber who is Hungarian.

Kiraly was a general in the Hungarian Army before his country fell under the yoke of Soviet Russia. Samson was a member of the Hungarian bar and a practicing lawyer in Budapest. These protagonists charge each other with attempting to use the organization for personal aggrandizement and selfish purposes. What they have to say about their personal histories in Hungary prior to having come to this country is of a moving and telling nature. It is charged with much appeal and intimates possible danger to the cause of the organization. The nature of the revelations is such that it is better to give it in their words rather than to attempt to restate it, as will be presently seen.

Samson says in his affidavit verified April 9, 1960:

'* * * During the early stages of the communist seizure of Hungary, I was convicted by the puppet Soviet regime of having participated in espionage both for the United States and for Israel. As a result of such conviction, I was sentenced to imprisonment for life and actually was incarcerated for five and a half years. My wife was likewise convicted of similar charges and spent three years in jail. It pains me to reveal that my son was born while my wife was a prisoner.

'Prior to that and during the Second World War, I had been a part of the active Underground fighting against Naziism.

'In common with many other of my compatriots, I escaped from Hungary because I realized that, as an enemy of the communist regime, my life was in constant danger so long as I remained in the country of my birth.

'I was among those fortunate to be given refuge in United States and I arrived here on January 13, 1957 . It was only natural that I would find myself a member of the Hungarian community in New York and that I would continue to press the fight against the communist regime in Hungary, and I naturally gravitated toward the organization which is the petitioner.

'My work on behalf of the Hungarian Freedom Fighters, Inc., must have been favorably received because it was not too long until I was immersed in the activities of the petitioner and I was invited to become a director and a member of its management. My sponsor in this movement, ironically enough, was the same Bela Kiraly who now makes these fantastic charges against me.

'Prior to World War II, Kiraly was notorious as a Nazi leader. In fact, he was convicted by the Allies as a war criminal when World War II was over. Thereafter, since it suited his purposes, he became a leader in the Hungarian Communist Party. His conduct while in Hungary was so notorious that even the New York Herald Tribune has branded Kiraly as an ex-communist chief.

'It was through his sponsorship that on May 5, 1959, at a meeting called by him, I was honored by being elected to its Board of Directors. If it seems strange that I accepted the sponsorship of a man so widely despised and hated by all freedom-loving people as an enemy of their aims and aspirations, it was only because the ultimate that I could do for our fight for freedom permitted me to overlook the means by which I was enabled to join the fight.

'A photocopy of the minutes of the meeting of May 5, 1959 are annexed hereto, marked Exhibit '1', and are made a part hereof. It will be seen that my election was legal and that a quorum was present.

'After my election as a Director of the petitioner, I threw myself into the work being carried on by the petitioner with even greater enthusiasm and absorption; and it was in connection with that work that I left for Europe on August 18, 1959 and thereafter returned to New York on October 30, 1959.

'I must state categorically that the principal reason for the schism which developed between Bela Kiraly and the other leaders in our movement was the plain and unadorned fact that Bela Kiraly is so steeped in the philosophy of dictatorship and self-aggrandisement that he intended to run the operations of the petitioner as its sole manager. This dictatorial approach by Mr . Kiraly was precisely the type of thing that I and the other Freedom Fighters who had fled from Hungary had been resisting for these last years; but joining him in the work of the petitioner was the only means left open to us to carry on our work.'

General Kiraly in his affidavit of April 21, 1960 states:

'In reference to the malicious and vicious charges which Mr. Samson makes regarding my character and background in his Affidavit, specifically to the charge that I was notorious as a Nazi leader and a leader in the Hungarian Communist Party, I feel it necessary to repeat my denial of such charges. Furthermore, I wish to state that I am an honorary member of the staff and faculty of the United States Army Command and General Staff College, the Senior Tactical School of the United States Army and a photostat of the certificate presented to me by the College is attached hereto as Exhibit 'A'. I also wish to refer the Court to the record of the consultations between myself and Mr. Joseph Kovago with the Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives, 86th Congress, 1st Session, dated September 10, 1959, concerning 'The Crimes of Khrushchev', annexed hereto as Exhibit 'B'. As a matter of fact, the charges directed against me by Mr. Samson are identical to the charges directed against me by the present Hungarian Communist Government in a so-called 'white book' which denounces the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and its leaders including myself. Furthermore, Mr. Samson's charges have been repeatedly leveled against me in the daily newspapers of the same Hungarian Communist Government, which Government, according to the United Nations Resolution, is imposed upon the Hungarian people by the Soviet Occupation Forces against the will of the Hungarian people. My participation in the revolution is well documented, and as a matter of fact, is set forth in the reports of the United Nations Special Committee on Hungary. As an example of the absurd charges made by Mr. Samson, he repeats his statement that I was convicted by Russia as a Nazi war criminal.

'I was never before any Russian tribunal for any sort of crime. I was, in fact, arrested on August 17, 1951 by the Hungarian Communists and paroled September 5,...