CENTRAL INDIA SPINNING AND WEAVING CO Vs. GIPRAILWAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from the decision of Kajiji J. dismissing the plaintiffs suit with costs.

(2.) On the 19 August 1918, the plaintiffs delivered to the defendant company at Nagpur fifty-seven bales of piece-goods to be conveyed from Nagpur to Amritsar and the defendant company issued a railway receipt for the said bales to the plaintiffs. The goods were booked under a risk note in Form H whereby the plaintiffs, in consideration of the consignment being charged for at the special reduced or owner's risk rates, agreed and undertook to hold the Railway Administration and all other Railway Administrations working in connection therewith, and also all other transport agents or carriers employed by them respectively over whose railways or by or through whose transport agency or agencies the said goods might be carried in transit harmless and free from all responsibility for any loss, destruction or deterioration of or damage to all or any of the said consignment from any cause whatever except for a loss of the complete consignment or of one or more complete packages forming part of the same consignment, due either to the wilful neglect of the Railway Administration or to theft by or to the wilful neglect of its servants, transport agents, or carriers employed by them before, during or after transit over the said railway or other railway lines working in connection therewith or by any other transport agency or agencies employed by them respectively for carriage of the whole or any part of the said consignment provided that the term "wilful neglect" should not be held to include fire, robbery from a running train or any unforeseen event or accident.

(3.) The said goods were carried over the railway of the defendant company from Nagpur to Delhi, then over the railway of the East India Railway Co. from Delhi to Umballa, and lastly over the railway of the North-Western Railway Co. from Umballa to Amritsar. The goods arrived at Amritsar on or about the 6 September but only fifty-four out of the fifty-seven bales were delivered to the plaintiffs consignees.