CROWTHER v. HIRSCHMANN, 172 Md. 697 (1937)

190 A. 760

LESTER H. CROWTHER, EXECUTOR, v. ADOLPH B. HIRSCHMANN

[No. 9, January Term, 1937.]Court of Appeals of Maryland.
Decided March 16th, 1937.

Action by Executor — Loan to Decedent — Pleading — Evidence

The sale of an interest in a trust fund to the extent of $2,250, for a consideration of $1,050, even though regarded as an unconscionable transaction, would be binding on competent parties, at least at law.

A declaration, in a suit by an executor, containing a count for money received for the decedent’s use, and a special count for money agreed to be loaned on the security of an assignment of an interest in a trust fund, but not paid over by the lender, would afford basis for recovery of an unpaid portion of a loan, or a usurious charge, or an appropriation of an excess realized from the security.

On an issue as to whether plaintiff’s decedent signed a paper, testimony, by his nephew and the latter’s wife, that on a day named decedent, who was too infirm to go up or down the steps leading to his apartment without the nephew’s aid, did not leave his apartment, was, taken together with an absence of inducement to sign, legally sufficient for the jury, as against testimony by defendant’s bookkeeper that she saw decedent execute the paper on that day in defendant’s office in the business section of the city, she identifying her signature as a witness thereto.

In an action by an executor to recover part of the amount of a loan made by defendant to decedent but not entirely paid over to the latter, the loan being secured by decedent’s assignment of an interest in a trust fund, held that a paper previously executed was inadmissible as evidencing a negotiation which was previous to the complete contract and superseded thereby.

Page 698

In an action by an executor to recover part of the amount of a loan, made by defendant to decedent but not entirely paid over to the latter, the loan being secured by the assignment of an interest in a trust fund, it was within the court’s discretion, on the cross-examination of defendant’s bookkeeper, to admit an instrument purporting to change the assignment to an outright sale of the trust interest, this tending to modify the effect of part of the bookkeeper’s testimony in chief.

Decided March 16th, 1937.

Appeal from the Superior Court of Baltimore City (ADAMS, J.).

Action by Lester H. Crowther, Executor of Robert S. Weaver, deceased, against Adolph B. Hirschmann. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

The cause was argued before BOND, C.J., URNER, OFFUTT, PARKE, SLOAN, MITCHELL, SHEHAN, and JOHNSON, JJ.

Lester H. Crowther and Charles F. Obrecht, for the appellant.

Jacob Kartman, with whom were Makover Kartman on the brief, for the appellee.

BOND, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court.

Unreported cases.