Fithian v. Jamar

The dispute in this case involves the rights and liabilities of co-makers of a note in a suit among themselves, where none of the disputants is a holder of the note. We granted certiorari to consider two questions, which simply stated are:

1. Whether a co-maker of a note was also an accommodation maker of the note and thus not liable to the party accommodated;

2. Whether the agreement of one co-maker to assume another co-maker’s obligation on a note constitutes a defense to the latter when sued for contribution by the former.

In 1967 Walter Fithian (Walter) and Richard Jamar (Richard), who were…