MANAGING AGENTS MARTIN AND CO Vs. SETH DEOKINANDAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) MESSRS. Martin and Co. Managing Agents ot the S. S. Light Railway (defendant No. 2) have appealed against the lower Court's decree for Rs. 12,659/- on account of delayed delivery, deterioration and loss of goods consigned tor 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 7th September 1947, Messrs. Raviprakash om Prakash, a firm ot 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, 666 and 741. The last two wagons, which contained 174 bags, were loaded and despatched on 9th 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 paralysed until about 20th September 1947. Thereafter, heavy rains commenced on 22nd September 1947 and caused unprecedented floods from 29/30 september 1947. The flood water submerged the railway track and entered the station buildings 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 12th November 1947.

(3.) MEANWHILE, on 6th November 1947, 174 bags of jaggery in N. G. Wagons Nos. 666 and 741 were transhipped to B. G. Wagon No. E. I. 28084 and, on 29th november 1947 again transhipped to Wagon No. N. W. 45444 for transport by the east Punjab Railway. This wagon was despatched on 7-1-1948 to Ghaziabad where it remained stationed till 17-1-1948 when it arrived at New Delhi. Haying been despached from New Delhi on 21-1-1948, it reached Khandwa seven days later on 28-1-1948.