NEPOLEON FERNANDES Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BENEDICT Belchour Fernandes, the appellant -plaintiff's son, was an. engine driver in the employment of the Central Railway, posted at Bhusawal Division. On January 5, 1963 he received injuries while driving a goods train (P -20Up) from Itarsi to Bhusawal. He was given first aid, and then removed to a, hospital, but on the very nest day, as the direct result of the injuries so received by him, he died.

(2.) THERE is no dispute that the said Benedict Belchour Fernandes (hereinafter referred to as the deceased) died during the course of his employment with the Central Railways and that he died as the result of the injuries received by him while he was driving his goods train from Itarsi to Bhusawal. At the time of the fatal accident he left behind him his father, mother, and a wife whom he had married only a few months earlier. It is on record that a son was born to the deceased posthumously.

(3.) IT requires to be noticed that the requisite notice under Section 80 of the Code of Civil Procedure was served upon the defendants on January 3, 1964. The suit was filed in forma pauperis and the petition in that behalf was presented to the civil Court on March 4, 1964. According to the plaintiff, the death of his only son Benedict took place due to the negligence on the part of the defendant railway in improperly loading iron frames of a bailey bridge in another goods train (hereinafter referred to as 'the food special goods train') with the result that the iron frames were protruding in the direction of the up -line so that when the special food goods train crossed the P -20Up train being driven by the deceased the protruding iron frames hit the deceased on his chest and shoulder causing serious injuries which proved fatal. The plaintiff has averred that his son was earning about Rs. 500 per month at the time of his death and was sending to him as his father a sum of Rs. 100 per month.