N GANGULU NAIDU Vs. NAMINENI CHENGAMA NAIDU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a Letters Patent appeal from the decision of the Officiating Chief Justice. The facts that have led to this appeal may be briefly stated. The plaintiff sued the defendants, who are four in number, alleging that he entered into a partnership with them, that he contributed towards capital Rs. 1,745, that the defendants by suppression of the accounts of the firm and otherwise were causing loss to him, and on these grounds he asked for a decree dissolving the partnership and directing the defendants to pay him the amount due inclusive of interest and profits.

(2.) Defendants 1 to 3, while admitting that they entered into the partnership, pleaded that as the plaintiff had made default in the payment of the capital agreed to be contributed, the partnership was dissolved within a few months of its formation, that the accounts were settled, that the amount due to the plaintiff was paid up and that the account-books of the dissolved partnership were taken by the plaintiff. The written statement of the 4 defendant is not before us, but it would appear that he did not admit that the plaintiff contributed Rs. 1,745 as capital, but he had no objection to have accounts taken and his share of the profits paid over to him.

(3.) The learned Subordinate Judge found that substantially the case of the plaintiff was true, that the defendants fraudulently withheld the account-books, and in the result he gave the plaintiff a decree for Rs. 1,745 and profits amounting to Rs. 1,100. The plaintiff claimed in the plaint the said amount as profits, and on the ground that every presumption should be drawn against parties suppressing the account-books, the Subordinate Judge accepted the figure mentioned by the plaintiff as the profits due to him and directed that amount to be paid.