BENGAL RIVER SERVICE COMPANY LIMITED Vs. GOVERNOR-GENERAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS suit was instituted on the 25th january 1945 against the then Governor-General in Council of undivided india for recovery of a sum of Rs. 1,21,656-9-3.

(2.) IN the plaint it is alleged that between Oct. 1942 and April 1943 the then Governor-General in Council employed the plaintiff to carry stone ballast from Chhatak to Bhairab, from chhatak to Ghorashal, from luba-mouth to Bhairab and from luba-mouth to Ghorashal The rates upon which the Governor-General in council agreed to pay for carrying the said materials are also set out in the plaint. In paragraph 3 of the plaint it is alleged that) the terms of employment were agreed orally and by means of correspondence. According to the plaint the said goods were carried by the plaintiff to the destinations above mentioned and from October 25, 1942 to 25th May, 1943 the plaintiff submitted detailed statements in respect of particulars of the said materials supplied to the then governor-General in Council and a sum of : Rs. 1,21,656-9-3 became due and payable by the Governor-General in council to the plaintiff.

(3.) ON 9th April 1947 the written statement was filed on behalf of the governor-General in Council admitting the contract in suit and stating that the said agreement was subsequently embodied in an instrument in writing executed by both the parties. After further admitting that diverse quantities of the said materials were supplied by the plaintiff to the governor-Genaral in Council, in the written statement the Governor-General in Council denied the claim of the plaintiff and expressly pleaded that the plaintiff had committed a breach of the said agreement for which the Governor-General in council had suffered loss and damages and claimed a sum of Rs. 26,536-1-0 by way of set off or such other sum by way of set off as the Court might award for such loss and damages.