J SUBBIAH REDDY Vs. T JORDON

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal from the judgment and decree of the Additional Judge of the Court of the Honourable the British Resident in Mysore, Bangalore, dated August 14, 1940, varying a judgment and decree of the District Judge, Bangalore, dated November 20, 1939.

(2.) THE claim of the plaintiff was for damages for injuries sustained by him in an accident to a motor car in which he was a passenger. He sued J. G. Anniah Reddy, the first defendant and second appellant who was the driver of the car, and his father, J. Subbiah Reddy, the second defendant and original first appellant, who was the owner of the car. Subbiah died on December 20, 1940, and appellants (i) to (xvi) are his legal representatives.

(3.) THE only question which requires consideration on this appeal is that of damages, and this raises a question of some importance. THE respondent has not appeared, but Mr. Quass for the appellants has argued that the Additional Judge had no right to interfere with the amount of damages found by the lower Court. He relies upon the rule acted upon by the Court of Appeal in England which was stated recently by Greer L. J. , in Flint v. Lovell [1935] 1 K. B. 354 in these terms: This Court will be disinclined to reverse the finding of a trial judge as to the amount of damages merely because they think that if they had tried the case in the first instance, they would have given a lesser sum. In order to justify reversing the trial judge on the question of the amount of damages it will generally be necessary that this Court should be convinced either that the judge acted upon some wrong principle of law, or that the amount awarded was so extremely high or so very small as to make it, in the judgment of this Court, an entirely erroneous estimate of the1 damage to which the Plaintiff is entitled.