LIONEL EDWARDS LTD Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal against the judgment and decree passed in Money Suit No. 5 of 1954 by Sri S.C. Talukdar, Subordinate Judge Alipore, decreeing the plaintiff's suit for recovery of cost of repairs to plaintiffs vessels.

(2.) The plaintiff in the suit is the State of West Bengal which had two motor launches Banalata and Banarani and the launches were placed with the Garden Reach Workshop Ltd. for repairs. On the 10th February 1951 when the launches were waiting for repairs at the Dock, S.S. Shahrok, a vessel owned by the defendant's principal suddenly collided with these launches and several others waiting there, causing serious damages. The plaintiff thereafter got an estimate of repairs at Rs. 16,390 for Banalata and Rs. 1568 for Banarani from the Garden Reach Workshop and claimed the said amounts from the defendant as damages. The defendant while agreeing to pay the cost of repairs of Banarani contended that Banalata was not worthy of repairs and that the pre-collision value of Banalata being Rs. 5,000 only, the plaintiff was entitled to that sum and not the estimated cost of repairs. There was some correspondence between the parties and eventually the plaintiff filed this suit for recovery of the entire cost of repairs, namely, Rs. 16,390/-.

(3.) Defendant contested the suit pleading Inter alia that the pre-collision market value of Banalata was Rs. 5000/- as it was not seaworthy and in a very weak state. The launch should be reckoned as constructive total loss, and it was uneconomic to repair it and the plaintiff at best, could claim to be put in the same position pecuniarily as if the collision had not occurred. They had offered Rs. 5,000/-which was the preollision value, and the plaintiff was not entitled to a decree for the amount claimed.