RANGAYYA GOUNDAN Vs. NANJAPPA RAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The respondents in this appeal, who were defendants in the Original suit, are a Hindu family of which Nanjappa is the manager. On the 23 March 1891 they made a written agreement with the appellants, the plaintiffs below, to sell to them a coffee plantation, of which the defendants were owners subject to mortgages.

(2.) The agreement is somewhat peculiar. The price is fixed at Rs. 77,500, of which Rs. 7,500 was paid down. The vendors guarantee a yield of 30 tons of coffee up to March 1892, and as security for that the purchasers are to retain Rs. 10,000 in their hands. The purchasers are to pay Rs. 25,000 to the mortgagee, leaving Rs. 10,000 due to him. The balance, being Rs. 35,000, is to be paid in cash between the 1 April and the 31 July 1891. Penalties are stipulated for non-performance of the agreement on either side. The following provision was made for the cultivation of the land: "As the said estate will be in our possession till the "31st of July 1891, we are bound to take care (of the estate) by getting our Superintendent to do, in all obedience, the works that "you may prescribe to be done in the estate. We shall within the 1 April next give you a list of the things appertaining to the "said estate and also at once hand over the cattle to you within the said date."

(3.) Down to the latter part of August 1891 the terms of the agreement were observed except that the time of completion was delayed. The purchasers cultivated the estate, and paid off the mortgages, and made some other payments on behalf of the vendors, which altogether amounted to Rs. 44,420, and left Rs. 33,080 due. Then disputes arose, and each party accused the other of delay. Early in September each called on the other to complete within four or five days, threatening in case of failure to sue for the stipulated penalties. The vendors interrupted the work of the purchasers. The criminal proceedings common in such oases took place, and then the litigation in the Civil Court which led up to the present appeal.