UNION OF INDIA Vs. SHEO PRASAD FULCHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application under Section 25 of the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act has been preferred by the Union of India, which as the owner of the Eastern Railway, the Northern Railway and the Central Railway administrations, was the defendant in a suit instituted by the plaintiff firm for recovery of Rs. 659.14 on account of compensation for loss of a part of a consignment of 14 bales if Indian cotton piece goods booked at Wadibunder on the Central railway for delivery at Jharia on the Eastern railway. At the time of effecting the delivery at Jharia, it was found that three of the bales had been damaged by rain water and from a fourth bale, the contents had been partly removed. The remaining ten bales were intact. Accordingly, the plaintiff took open delivery after assessment of the damage.

(2.) The case of the plaintiff was that the short delivery and the damage was due to negligence and misconduct on the part of the servants of the railway administrations concerned and, accordingly, the present suit was instituted after service of the requisite notices upon the railway administrations concerned. The total claim of Rs. 659.14 was made up of Rs. 505.14 on account of loss by damage due to wet and Rs. 154.00 as loss suffered on account of tampering with the fourth bale, the contents of which had been partly removed.

(3.) The defendant denied its liability, principally, on the ground that the consignment tendered for despatch was in a defective condition, inasmuch as the packing conditions laid down in the Tariff Rules had not been complied with by the consignor and a note to that effect had been made by the sender on the forwarding note (Ext. B) As to the shortage in the fourth bale, the defendant's case was that it was not due to any tampering in transit, but due to short packing by the sender. The defendant denied that there was any negligence, misconduct or carelessness on the part of the railway servants.