HINDUSTAN CONSTRUCTION COMPANY Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff is the appellant, it is a registered firm known as "Hindustan Construction Company" with the head quarter at Sarayaganj in the town of Muzaffarpur. It was doing business at the relevant time in the manufacture and supply of bricks. The defendant-respondent is the State of Bihar.

(2.) The suit, giving rise to this appeal, was instituted by the plaintiff for recovery of a sum of Rs. 3,14,756/14/2 including interest from the defendant as damages and compensation for breach of contracts.

(3.) The State of Bihar, acting through the Public Works Department, required several lakhs of bricks, brickbats ana Jhamas, hereinafter to be referred to only as "the bricks", for some projects in the Muzaffarpur Division and Champaran Division, both controlled by one Superintending Engineer in the North Bihar Circle. The bricks were required in connection with the constructions of (1) Muzaffarpur-Hajipur Road, (2). Muzaffarpur Border Champaran-sagauli Road, (3) Buildings at Muzaffarpur, (4) Buildings at Darbhanga and (5) Buildings at Lohata in Motihari during the seasons of 1945-46 and 1946-47. Tenders were called for on behalf of the defendant through the proper authorities of the Public Works Department (P.W.D.) for the supply of bricks, and the plaintiff's tenders were accepted. Two separate written agreements, Exts. B and B-1, were executed in connection with the two Road projects, but no written agreement was entered in respect of the building projects. The contracts about them were created only by acceptance of tenders and exchange of letters.