HOMESHVAR SINGH Vs. JUGAL KISHORE MARVARI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This case turns upon the construction of a contract made between a landowner in the District of Bhagulpur, the deceased father of the appellants in the main appeal, and two persons interested in the purchase of timber whom it will be convenient to call the contractors.

(2.) By this contract, made on May 23, 1915, the landowner sold to the contractors the right of cutting five lakhs of sleepers to be cut from Sakhua trees in the landowner's jungle. The sleepers were to be in defined quantities of six different dimensions-the longest twelve feet in length and the shortest three feet- with varying differences in breadth and thickness, and valued at separate prices.

(3.) The whole were to be cut before June, 1919, so that there was a period of four years for performing the contract. But it was in contemplation, as the contract shows, that 15,000 sleepers would be cut each month during the nine dry months of the year and 1,35,000 at least a year, the contractors also undertaking to do their bests to cut some sleepers during the three wet months.