Warren v. Allewalt

Per Curiam. This appeal is from the judgment entered against the ap ¹⁴² pellant after the lower court had granted the motion of the appellee for summary judgment. The appellee, an attorney, sued the appellant, a client, for the unpaid balance of a fee for professional services. A motion for summary judgment with an affidavit in support thereof and the customary notice to the adverse party to plead were filed with the declaration, pursuant to the requirements of Maryland Rule 610.

The appellant, in pleading to the claim, filed an “answer” to the declaration and an opposing affidavit in which, without setting forth material facts to support his opposition, he claimed that the appellee had improperly, inadequately and negligently represented the appellant in the furtherance and defense of his interests in an equity proceeding (Warren v. Baltimore Transit Co., 220 Md. 478 ) for the appointment of appraisers to determine the fair value of the petitioner’s stock in the transit company, in that the appellee did not raise, argue or advise the appellant of certain basic constitutional arguments, questions of statutory construction and allied matters, which could, and should, have been raised and argued. At the hearing on the motion, the lower court, in an effort to determine whether there was a genuine dispute between the parties as to a material fact, gave the appellant an opportunity to testify further with respect to the matters he had asserted in opposition to the motion, but when he was asked if there was anything he desired to add to what had been stated in the answer and opposing affidavit, the