DIGAMBARRAO HANMANTRAO DESHPANDE Vs. RANGRAO RAGHUNATHRAO DESAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a first appeal from a decision of the Civil Judge, Senior Division, at Hubli, who dismissed the plaintiff's suit.

(2.) THE suit came to be filed by the plaintiff under the following circumstances. THE plaintiff's father initiated a suit, being suit No.438 of 1911, in the First Class Subordinate Judge's Court at Dharwar, by filing a pauper petition No.5 of 1910 against his brother Laxmipati and others including one Hanmant Krishna Deshpande who was defendant No.21 in the suit. THE suit was a suit for partition claiming a half share in the ancestral properties, the properties included in the suit being Survey Nos. 49, 52, 116, 17 and 20.This suit had a chequered career "as appears from the judgment delivered by this Court in Digambar Hanmant v. Shrinivas Laxmipatirao (1937) F. A. No.84 of 1934, decided by 1937 (Unrep. ). THE plaintiff's father having died in the meanwhile the plaintiff filed and prosecuted the appeal, and it appears that on December 15, 1937, a decree was passed by the Appeal Court in terms of the compromise which had been arrived at between the plaintiff and defendant No.21 Hanmant Krishna Deshpande, who was respondent No.18 in the appeal, under which the plaintiff was declared to be the full owner of survey Nos. 49, 52,116,17 and 20.

(3.) A written statement was filed by defendant No.1 in which he contended that the decision in suit No.551 of 1910 barred the plaintiff's present suit as res judicata and that the plaintiff was not entitled to any relief as prayed.