PAPER SALES LTD Vs. CHOKHANI BROS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from two judgments of Mr.. Justice Chagla dated March 15, 1944, and November 10, 1944, by which he ordered the appellants to pay to the respondents Rs. 2,77,000 as damages for breach of contract.

(2.) The fact that there was a contract whereby the appellants agreed to sell to the respondents one hundred tons of special featherweight bond paper, more particularly described in exhibit E, which is a letter dated July 10/15, 1942, is not now in dispute. Nor is it disputed that the appellants are in breach of that contract. The controversy is directed to the date of the breach and to the quantum of damages, if any. Mr. Colt-man for the appellants admits with considerable force and logic that in order to determine that controversy it is essential to start at the beginning and to ascertain the terms of the contract. Unfortunately the position in this regard has become confused by the course which the proceedings have taken which necessitated an amendment by the respondents of their plaint after the hearing of the action had commenced and by a mistake in the respondents pleadings which even at this late stage still persists. It is Mr. Coltman s submission that even after the amendment the contract and the extensions of time as pleaded have not been proved by the respondents. It is accordingly necessary to examine the pleadings in order to ascertain how the matter stands.

(3.) The plaint, as it originally stood, pleaded the contract in these terms: