CORPORATION BANK Vs. BHARI EXPORTS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff, a bank constituted under the Banking Companies (Acquisition & Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1980 filed this suit on 18-10-1985 tor recovery of Rs. 1,86,290.80. There are four defendants. This claim is in the amended plaint and when the suit was originally instituted the claim was for an amount of Rs. 1,53,598.46. By amendment to the plaint the plaintiff was allowed to plead and claim an amount of Rs. 26,840.93 towards loss in the exchange rate.

(2.) Defendant No. I is a partnership firm of defendants 2 and 3.. Defendant No. 4 is a banking corporation in Barcelona Spain. This defendant No. 4 is the collecting bank as the term is normally understood.

(3.) The claim of the plaintiff is that defendants I to 3 were granted export bill discounted / purchase facility by the plaintiff and the defendants were allowed to avail the limit upto Rs. 1.50 lacs. For this purpose documents were documents by defendants 1 to 3. The plaintiff discounted three bills of defendants dants I to 3 amounting respectively as US $ 2749.20, US $ 3979 and US $ 3720.40. The export order had been received from M[s. Kohinoor BLC, Barcelona, Spain. The airline carrier was Air India. The airline earner and the consignee, i.e., M/s. Kohinoor, have not been impleaded as parties in the suit. On account of discounting of the aforesaid three bills the defendants 1 to 3 received various amounts totalling Rs. 1,00,658.76 in the sums of Rs. 26,460.06, Rs. 38,668.61 and Rs. 35,530.09. It is stated that these defendants agreed to repay the amount of the plaintiff out of the remittances received from M/s. Kohinoor and further .agreed to pay interest at the rate prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India as applicable for accounts of export bills remaining unpaid for a certain period. The plaintiff sent the documents for collection to defendant No. 4 and delivery of the goods in question .was to be allowed to M/s. Kohinoor after defendant No. 4 had received the payment. The documents which were sent by the plaintiff to defendant No. 4 were the export bills, the airway bills, covering shipment of consignment covered under the bills and drawn in favour of defendant No. 4. Since the amounts under the bills were not received, by the plaintiff it called upon defendants 1 to 3 to pay the amount as availed by them with interest from the date of availment of the amounts. These defendants did not respond to the demand of the plaintiff. Defendant No. 4, in the meanwhile, by its letter dated 3-10-1983 returned the documents to the plaintiff bank. The plaintiff bank corresponded with the airline carrier regarding delivery or nondelivery of the consignments in question. The plaintiff, however, it is stated, came to know that defendant No. 4 by colludiag with the foreign buyer M[s. Kohinoor allowed the delivery of the goods without collecting the amounts under the bills and without remitting the same to the plaintiff bank. The plaintiff further states that all the goods covered under the three export bills had been permitted to be delivered by defendant No. 4 to M/s. Kohinoor without collecting any amounts under these bills. The plaintiff has not only claimed the amounts under the export bills, but has further claimed that defendants were liable to pay for the exchange loss incurred by the plaintiff in the circumhtces aforesaid. The plaintiff has given details of the exchange rate at the time of purchase and also at the- time of sale, the difference being of Rs. 26,840.93. This amount the plaintiff has claimed from the defendant. The rate of interest given is 19.5% per annum upto 31-3-1983, 18.5% per annum from 1-4-1983 to 1-4-1985 and 17.5% per annum from 1-4-1985 to 15-10-1985. Thus, the plaintiff has claimed the amount of Rs. 1,86,290.80 comprising the amounts credited to the account of the defendants I to 3 on purchase of the three export bills, the interest accrued thereon and the amount on account of loss in foreign exchange rate.