WILLIAM GOODACRE AND SONS Vs. MATHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Second Appeal is by the defendants in a suit for recovery of bonus, which has been decreed concurrently by both the courts below in favour of the plaintiff.

(2.) The defendants are Messrs. William Goodacre & Sons Ltd. having their Head Office at Alleppey and a branch at Quilon and engaged in the business of manufacture and sale of coir yarn. The plaintiff was employed by the defendants as their Labour Welfare Officer at the Quilon branch as and from 1.4.1943 on a pay of Rs. 107-8-0, but his services were terminated on ground of retrenchment on 30.6.1947. Plaintiffs Provident Fund claims were settled and paid off to his satisfaction on 22.7.1947. In September, 1947, the defendants Head Office in London announced a payment of bonus to their employees in Travancore for the year ending 30.6.1947. Plaintiff then made claim for his share of bonus but the defendants refused and so this suit was laid on 5.4.1123 for recovery of an estimated bonus of Rs. 700.

(3.) The defendants resisted the suit mainly on the footing that bonus was only an ex gratia payment and could not be demanded as of right. They also pleaded that the bonus in question was intended to be distributed in favour of such only of the employees as were in actual service at the time of the declaration, and plaintiff having then ceased to be an employee, could not make claim. Finally, they relied upon a receipt dated 22.7.1947 passed by the plaintiff when he received his Provident Fund and saying that he had no further claim against the company as constituting an estoppel against the plaintiffs subsequent demand for the bonus.