Schaeffer v. United Bank & Trust Co.

The ultimate question presented here is whether the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County properly granted appellee-payee’s motion for a directed verdict in an action upon an installment note where there was evidence that appellant, an accommodation maker, was unable to read and had been told by the accommodated party, who had been his supervisor and friend, that the document he was signing was a “character reference.”

I

In early 1973 James and Marie Estepp, husband and wife, sought a debt consolidation loan from the United Bank and Trust Company of Maryland. The bank was unwilling to make…