S.S. LIGHT RAILWAY Vs. DEOKINANDAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) MESSRS . Martin and Co., Managing Agents of the S. S. Light Railway (defendant No. 2) have appealed against the lower Court' decree for Rs. 12,659/ -on account of delayed delivery, deterioration and loss of goods consigned for transport by rail.

(2.) THE facts of the case, some of which were disputed in the lower Court but are no longer in controversy, are these. On 7 September 1947, Messrs. Raviprakash Om Prakash, a firm of commission agents dealing in jaggery, booked at Khekra on the S. S. Light Railway a consignment of 199 bags of jaggery weighing 485 maunds to be delivered to them at Khandwa. The goods were carried in three N. G. Wagons Nos. 628, 665 and 741. The last two wagons, which contained 174 bags, were loaded and dispatched on 9 September 1947 and reached Delhi Sahadra on the same day. On that day, communal disturbances broke out at Delhi and affected the surrounding areas with the consequence that the working of railways was paralyzed until about 20 September 1947. Thereafter, heavy raini commenced on 22 September 1947 and caused unprecedented floods from 29/30 September 1947. The flood water submerged the railway track and entered the station building at Delhi -Sahadra. The flood level rose to such an extent that water entered the two wagons standing on the track at Sahadra and damaged the jaggery bags. In a few days, the floods receded, but the track was extensively damaged -and breached at several places. The normal working of the S. S. Light Railway was restored on 12 November 1947.

(3.) THE third N. G. Wagon No. 628 which contained 25 bags of jaggery was loaded on 25 January 1948 and dispatched from Khekra. After the necessary transshipment at Delhi -Sahadra, it arrived at New Delhi on 3 February 1948 and reached Khandwa in the usual course on 22 February 1948.