GUJARAT GINNING AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY LIMITED Vs. MOTILAL HIRABHAI SPINNING AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant company-the Gujarat Ginning and Manufacturing Co. , Ltd.-appeal from an injunction granted by the District Judge at Ahmedabad and affirmed by the High Court of Bombay restraining them from interfering with the passage of railway wagons between the respondents' land and the line of the Bombay Baroda and Central India Railway upon railway lines laid down in the appellants' premises. Part of the order complained of requires the appellants to replace certain rails which they had taken up. THE suit was brought by the Motilal Hirabhai Spinning, Weaving and Manufacturing Company, Limited (the respondents) in the Court of the Subordinate Judge at Ahmedabad on June 29, 1923. THE trial Judge had dismissed the suit.

(2.) A third company, the Gujarat Spinning and Weaving Company, Limited, has to be referred to and as its name is very similar to the name of the appellants, it will be referred to in this judgment as the "third company". The three companies just mentioned appear all to have been engaged in cotton manufacture, but it is not possible to form an opinion whether, and if so how far, they were rivals in business, or were in the habit of assisting one another, or were independent altogether.

(3.) IN 1903 the original application for a siding was by letters dated October 15 and November 2, 1903. Both letters are written in the name of Jamnabhai Mansukhbhai, the agency firm, as agents for the appellants, whose name is at the head of the letters; and in both the railway company is asked to give a siding " for our mill as well as the Gujarat Spinning and the Motilal Hirabhai Mill under our management". The Bombay Baroda and Central INdia Railway Company in June, 1904, issued a memorandum of terms for the construction of sidings for the use of mills or other industries. This provided that the ordinary maintenance would be done by the railway " at the expense of the users of the siding" and that on the completion of the work to formation level all permanent way material would be provided, laid and maintained by the railway. The users were to pay to the railway six per cent, per annum on the cost of all works except maintenance. IN the event of the traffic being insufficient, the railway company were to have the right to remove the permanent way materials unless the users should elect to pay extra. The siding was not to be used for any traffic other than that of the mill or industry for which it was originally provided. There is a further provision that : 11.The Bombay Baroda and Central INdia Railway shall have the right to construct or allow to be constructed under similar terms any extension of the siding and to work traffic over the siding to or from the extension for which extension a separate agreement with the railway company shall be entered into by the new applicants.