ABDULALI ABDULHUSEIN Vs. MIAKHAN ABDULHUSEIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This suit relates to a portion of a house alleged to have been given away by one Mariam, the widow of Abdool Husen Kamrudin, to her grand-daughter Rukhiaboo, the daughter of Abdul Ali, the first plaintiff, and the wife of the first defendant Miakhan. The deed of gift in favour of Rukhiaboo was dated the 3rd of June 1899.

(2.) In the year 1900, Mariam found herself involved in three suits in all of which an issue was raised and decided against her as to whether she had any title to the house in question, which had originally belonged to her husband Abdool Husen Kamrudin. The decision against Mariam in those suits is now relied upon as evidence against Miakhan, the husband of Rukhiaboo, although not only were the causes of action in those suits concerned with a different portion of the house to that which was the subject of the gift in favour of Rukhiaboo, but the suits themselves were instituted a year subsequent to that deed of gift. Without considering the question how far a judgment in a suit relating to one portion of a house can be res judicata against the owners of another portion of the house, we hold that the judgments in the suits of 1900 are not admissible in evidence against Rukhiaboo on the ground stated by Mr. Justice Romer in Mercantile Investment and General Trust Company v. River Plate Trust, Loan, and Agency Company [1894] 1 Ch. 595, that a prior purchaser of land cannot be stopped as being privy in estate by a judgment obtained in an action against the vendor commenced after the purchase". To the same effect are the judgment of the Privy Council in The Natal Land Company v. Good (1868) L.R. 2 P.C. 132, and the judgment of the Allahabad High Court in Naizullah Khan v. Nazir Begam (1892) I.L.B. 15 All, 108: Then it is contended by the appellants that at all events the lower Court in deciding the suit should have considered Abdullah-s claim as one of the heirs of Rukhiaboo.

(3.) Now the claim that was first put forward in this suit was put forward jointly by Abdul Ali with the children of his brother Esoofali claiming as the heirs of Abdul Husen Kam. rudin on the ground that their mother Mariamboo had no title to the property which she purported to dispose of by way of gift to Rukhiaboo. They, therefore, claimed under a title derived from Abdul Husen Kamrudin as his heirs and claimed in respect of his estate. That was a clear and definite cause of action.