JHAGRAKHAND COLLIERIES PRIVATE LTD. Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal by the plaintiff appellants whose suit against the defendant respondents for Rs. 20,503 by way of compensation for the non -return of 1350 tons 1 cwt. coal deposited on the railway yard, Manendragarh, has been dismissed by the Additional District Judge, Ambikapur.

(2.) THE claim of the plaintiffs arises under the following circumstances: The plaintiffs are a Private Limited Company carrying on colliery business. The modus operandi adopted by them with the consent of the defendant railway for transporting coal from their collieries to outstations was as follows. They were to load the railway wagons with coal at the colliery siding. The wagons were then to be taken to the weighbridge at the railway yard, Manendragarh, where coal in excess of the wagon capacity was to be off -loaded by the plaintiff's labour. This off -loaded coal was to be kept in the railway yard at the risk of the plaintiff. From time to time arrangements used to be made for transporting this coal if and when it was more than a wagon load.

(3.) THE case of the plaintiffs is that in or about February 1954 there was a joint verification of accounts of coal and it was agreed that on 31st July 1953,1350 tons 1 cwt. of coal belonging to the plaintiff was lying at the railway weighbsidge yard, which the defendant railway have failed to account for. They alleged that the defendant railway were liable to account for it either as bailees or depositees. They, therefore claim the price of the coal unaccounted for, at Rs. 15 -3 per ton which was the market price of coal on that date. They thus claim Rs. 20,503.