KHIMJI VASANJI Vs. NARSI DHANJI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs, father and son, sue the defendants for damages alleging that the three defendants conspired with each other and others not made parties to this suit, to procure the breach of a contract of marriage entered into by one Mulji, not a party, with the plaintiff 1 on behalf, respectively, of Jamnabai, the daughter of the said Mulji, and Kanji, the plaintiff 2. The material undisputed facts are that the girl Jamnabai was formally betrothed by her father Mulji in 1910 to the second plaintiff, the contract being made according to the usages of the caste between Mulji and the plaintiff 1. The terms of the contract were that the plaintiffs were to provide Rs. 5500 worth of ornaments for the bride.

(2.) Early in March 1913 Mulji appears to have contemplated making another marriage for his daughter, as he alleges, because he had already broken off the engagement with the second plaintiff on account of the plaintiff s failure to comply with the conditions of the original betrothal. Towards the close of March, Mulji went to Calcutta and appears to have sounded the defendant 1 who was then recently a widower. The defendant 1 is a much wealthier man than the plaintiff 1 or plaintiff 2.

(3.) The defendant 1 agreed to marry the girl, Jamnabai, who was now rather over-mature in the opinions of these people to be left unmarried any longer.