ANGNE LAL Vs. SIDH GOPAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal arises out of a suit brought by one Pt. Angne Lal for the recovery of a sum of Rs. 4490 with pendente lite and future interest. Pt. Angne Lal's claim was dismissed by the Courts below and he preferred the present appeal. He died during the pendency of the appeal and his legal representatives were brought upon the record as appellants. The plaintiff based his claim in the Courts below on Section 69, Contract Act. It appears from the judgments of the Courts below that there was some discussion in those Courts of the question as to whether the principle of contribution which is embodied in Section 82, T.P. Act, had any application to the case, but in the present appeal the plaintiff's right to the amount claimed has been based solely and wholly on the provisions, of Section 69, Contract Act.

(2.) The facts that led to the suit are as follows: On 3 January 1919, one Jagat Sahai executed two mortgage deeds in favour of Har Dayal and others for a total sum of Rs. 11,500 mortgaging his zamindari in four villages. Two of these villages were Gahloi and Thanpur Nigoh. The names of the remaining two villages are immaterial. In the year 1923 Jagat Sahai sold the two villages named above to Sidh Gopal and Madan Gopal, defendants 1 and 2, for a sum of Rs. 20,000 and left with the vendees Rs. 14,550 for the satisfaction of the two mortgages of 1919. As between Jagat Sahai and the vendees the covenant was that the vendees will satisfy the two mortgages and thus the two villages which remained with Jagat Sahai after the execution of the sale deed would be free from encumbrance.

(3.) The plaintiff's case was that though the sale deed was executed in favour of defendants 1 and 2 those defendants were, as a matter of fact, the plaintiff's benamidars so far as village Nigoh was concerned and that the price of village Nigoh was a sum of Rs. 2000 which was paid in cash by the plaintiff to Jagat Sahai at the time of the execution of the sale deed. The plaintiff's case further was that contemporaneously with the execution of the sale deed there was an agreement between him (the plaintiff) and defendants 1 and 2 (the ostensible vendees) to the effect that defendants 1 and 2 would satisfy the two mortgage deeds of the year 1919 and that the plaintiff will get village Nigoh free from those encumbarances. All these allegations of the plaintiff have been accepted by the lower Appellate Court. The consideration of the present appeal must therefore be approached on the assumption that defendants 1 and 2 had purchased village Gahloi for Rs. 18,000 and out of that amount they retained in their hands a sum of Rs. 14,550 for the redemption of the two mortgages of 1919 and that by virtue of an agreement between the plaintiff and defendants 1 and 2 village Nigoh was to be free from all encumbrances. In other words, defendants 1 and 2 were under a contractual liability to the plaintiff to redeem the encumbrances mentioned above so that the plaintiff may get village Nigoh free from all encumbrances.