REKHABEN JAYANTIBHAI PATEL Vs. RAVJIBHAI JIVABHAI PATEL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY the present judgment First Appeals being First Appeal No.4984 of 1995 and 156 of 1995 are being disposed of. The first First Appeal No.4984 of 1995 was filed on behalf of he claimants and the second is filed by the driver and owner of the vehicle involved in the accident. Another proceedings relating to the same accident being First Appeal No.155 of 1995, filed by the wife of deceased, have been decided by this Court by an agreed compromise order by virtue of which it was left open that the parties will be at liberty to raise all necessary averments in the cognate matters and their rights would not be prejudiced by the fact that the other proceedings are being disposed of as compromised. Be that as it may, the present appeals may be decided on their own merits.

(2.) TWO principal questions have been urged on behalf of the claimants in these appeals. One, when the question of negligence has been decided by compromise, the same has become final and has attained finality and would operate as res judicata. To press this point, the learned counsel for the claimants has relied on the following decisions: -

(3.) FIRST we taken up the question of what was the dependency of the claimants on the deceased and to decide the question it would be fruitful to look into the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Limited v. Rajapriya and two others, JT 2005 (4) SC 531. The relevant paragraphs are quoted herein below: -