(1.) This is a suit to recover a sum of Rs. 15,000 as damages for the wrongful repudiation and breach of contract, whereby the defendants agreed to sell and deliver coal to the plaintiff. The contract is said to have been made on 27 June 1928, and by it the defendants agreed to sell to the plaintiff the whole of the output of Messrs. Linton's Angarpathra Colliery's slack coal from such date until the end of June 1929. That contract was subject to an existing contract with Messrs. Andrew, Yule & Co., Ltd., which was current until the end of the year 1928, and the plaintiff was only to receive so much coal as was available after Messrs. Andrew, Yule & Co., Ltd., had been satisfied. At the hearing, it has not been denied that the contract in suit was entered into and that there has been a breach, and the only question of substance is whether the defendants are personally liable, though there may have to be a reference to ascertain the damages in the event of their liability being established.
(2.) The defendants were appointed receivers of the colliery by the Subordinate Judge of Dhanbad in a suit in that Court by the receiver of the estate of Trighunait Brothers against P. F. Lin-ton & Ors, and, by the order appointing them, they were required to secure the sanction of the Court to contracts for the sale of coal.
(3.) The defence preferred on behalf of the defendants at the hearing is based upon their receivership, and the following issues have been submitted by learned Counsel for the parties: (1) Had the defendants power without the sanction of the Court of Dhanbad to make the contract in suit as receivers ? (2) Is the contract void for want of sanction? (3) Are the defendants personally liable for breach of the said contracts ? (4) To what sum, by way of damages, is the plaintiff entitled ?