BAIRAGI CHARAN DAS Vs. SARAT CHANDRA GHOSH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition under Section 25, Provincial Small Cause Courts Act. The plaintiff filed a suit to recover a sum of Rs. 438-15-0 due under a pronote dated 20 January 1932. The executant is defendant 1. Defendants 2 to 4 are pro forma defendants. Defendant 1 contested the suit saying that it was not maintainable and disclaimed liability of the transaction as the suit was time barred. The Court below decreed the suit in its entirety, by its judgment dated 29 July 1939. Mr. Basu, on behalf of the petitioner, urges that under the Negotiable Instruments Act the present plaintiff is neither a holder of the pronote nor a holder in due course and, therefore, he was not entitled to file the suit.

(2.) The plaintiff is one Sarat Chandra Ghosh, who is the common manager appointed of the estate of Rakhal Chandra Roy Bhagat, deceased, under a will executed by the latter. The sons of the testator were appointed executors. A dispute arose amongst them, which came up to the High Court and ended in a compromise order by which the present plaintiff came to be appointed the common manager. The pro forma defendant 2 was the payee under the pronote and the document also mentions the fact that the sum of Rs. 315 was being taken out of the funds of the estate. On the question of limitation the finding is that the suit was not barred by limitation.

(3.) As to the contention of Mr. Baau that the plaintiff is not the proper person to sue under the pronote, he has relied on various decisions in support of his contention. But when the plaintiff was appointed the common manager of the estate by Ex. 3 which is an order of this Court, he, for all intents and purposes represented the estate of Rakhal Chandra Roy Bhagat; and as has been held in Ghanashyam Das V/s. Raghu Sahu an endorsement and delivery is not the only method by which a negotiable instrument can be transferred on the basis of which a suit can be filed. The common manager was evidently appointed under Section 301, Succession Act.