SARANGDHAR SINGH Vs. LAKSHMI NARAYAN WAHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is on behalf of the defendants against whom a suit for money was partly decreed and the decree was affirmed by the. Court of appeal below.

(2.) Shortly, the plaintiff's case was that one Babu Banwari Lal Arora was the Manager of the Khadga Vilas Press, Patna, owned by the defendants, on a salary of Rs. 100/- per month. His salary from March 1941 to the 13th of September, 1941, was not paid by the defendants who were also liable to pay Rs. 100/- to the said Manager for the fines that were realised from him on account of alleged violation of cases under the Factories Act and under the Payment of Wages Act. The Manager died after making a will in favour of the plaintiff who was also entitled to recover a sum of Rs. 28A, being his own salary for the month of August 1941. The probate of the will was taken in due course, and the plaintiff sued for a sum of Rs. 1013/3/- on 10-8-1944.

(3.) The defendants, proprietors of the Khadga Vilas Press resisted the action on the grounds that the suit was not maintainable as the jurisdiction of the Civil Courts was ousted by the provisions of Section 22, Payment of Wages Act (Act 4 of 1936); that it was barred by limitation; that they were not liable for the fines paid by the Manager as it was due to his negligence that the cases were brought, and that the, defendants had suffered loss on account of negligence, misappropriation and mismanagement of the Press by the Manager, and, on that account, the Manager was liable to pay a sum of Rs. 898/11/- and the plaintiff was liable to pay Rs. 87/9/6 to them. Five different statements were set out at the foot of the written statement showing the liability of the deceased Manager and the plaintiff.