NATVAR PARIKH INDUSTRIES LTD. Vs. JAYTEE EXPORTS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) It may have probably been more profitable to the defendant-appellants to not have wasted enormous court time and pointed out the obvious mistake in the impugned judgment and decree straightaway. At the very least, this appellate court would have been kinder on costs if such approach had been adopted.

(2.) There is a message in this suit and it is such message which must first be seen before going into the facts and the merits of the matter. The case brought by the plaintiff was that the first defendant, an Indian company based in Kolkata, and its second and third defendant directors induced the plaintiff to engage the fourth defendant Singapore company - of which the second and third defendants were also in control - as the shipping company for the purpose of transporting a consignment of fabric to Dubai. This was in 1998. A bill of lading was issued sometime in January, 1998. The bill of lading was issued by the fourth defendant Singapore company. That the goods were shipped on board was endorsed in the bill of lading by the first defendant Indian company. The consignor in the bill of lading was the plaintiff. The consignee was a bank in Dubai and the notify party was a concern by the name of DXB Knits in Dubai. The simple grievance of the plaintiff was that though the goods were exported on the basis of documentary credit, the goods were released to the Dubai purchaser without obtaining the appropriate documents from such purchaser.

(3.) Though the transaction was of 1998, this suit was carried to the court in the year 2000 after a failed attempt in Dubai to extract the payment equivalent to the value of the goods from the Dubai agent of the fourth defendant shipping company by the name of Loyal Freight. It was disclosed in the plaint relating to the present suit that the action against Loyal Freight had failed and an appeal was pending, but the plaintiff had been advised that since the stand of Loyal Freight in Dubai was that the goods had been made over to DXB Knits at the instance of the defendants, the present suit had been carried to this court.