Silverman v. National Life Insurance

¹⁴⁹ Smith, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. We are here concerned with the propriety of a summary judgment entered in a proceeding in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County in which appellants, Jerome Silverman and Greta Silverman, (Silverman) were defendants and appellee, National Life Insurance Company, (National Life) was plaintiff. We shall dismiss the appeal as prematurely taken. National Life filed a suit in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County on a guaranty agreement, executed by Silverman, guaranteeing payment of a note in the amount of $1,300,000.00 of a District of Columbia limited partnership known as Carroll Arms Associates in which Mr. and Mrs. Silverman were partners.

Liability under the guaranty was limited to $400,000.00. National Life’s declaration had appended to it a motion for summary judgment and an affidavit in the usual form. Silverman filed a counterclaim which incorporated by reference the complaint they filed in the District of Columbia against National Life. That complaint was relative to the foreclosure proceeding filed by National Life in the District of Columbia under the deed of trust securing payment of the note guaranteed by Silver-man.

The District of Columbia complaint attacked the foreclosure proceeding on technical grounds relative to notice and deposit, claimed “substantial usurious transactions” between the parties “which bar [National Life] from equitable relief, and which otherwise warrant the enjoining and prevention of the * * * foreclosure action”, and claimed that any foreclosure action or proceeding would be “illegal, wrongful, fraudulent, malicious, and as a result of a conspiracy”. After incorporating their District of Columbia claim by reference, the Silverman counterclaim in this action claimed that National Life’s District of Columbia foreclosure action was “brought willfully and wrongly” and claimed that it constituted a “malicious abuse of process, malicious prosecution, and malicious use of process”. Silverman sought ¹⁵⁰ compensatory damages of $5,000,000.00 and punitive damages of $3,000,000.00 in the counterclaim. Judge Shearin, in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, granted National Life’s motion for summary judgment, and entered judgment nisi in favor of National Life against Silverman in the amount of $400,-000.00 on November 15, 1968.

Thereafter, Silverman moved for reconsideration of the granting of summary judgment, and