RAMJI DAS Vs. BHAGWAN DAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the plaintiff in a suit for the recovery of value of goods made over to a Railway Administration for transmission but not delivered at the destination. The case for the plaintiff is that the Secretary of State for India in Council owns the Eastern Bengal State Railway, that on the 12th October 1909 the plaintiff made over to the Railway authorities at Rungpur 250 bundles of to bacco, worth Rs. 15,335, for despatch and carriage to Calcutta, but that the goods have never been delivered to him. The defendant pleaded in substance that the goods were destroyed while in course of transmission on the 17th October 1909 by an act of God, namely, a severe cyclone, and that he is consequently not liable for the value of the goods. The Subordinate Judge has held that the loss of the goods was caused by an act of God beyond the control of the defendant, and that this furnishes a complete answer to the claim. The plaintiff has now appealed to this Court and has invited us |p hold that the decree of the Subordinate Judge is contrary to law.

(2.) The evidence shows that the goods were received by the Railway Authorities at Rungpur on the 12th October 1909, and were, in ordinary course of business, loaded into wagons on that very day. They were despatched from Rungpur on the 14th October by a goods train that runs from Lalmanir Hat through Rungpur to Parbatipur. They could not be despatched on the 13th October, as there were goods received earlier, which were despatched on that date, as also a fish van and two foreign empty wagons. The Station Master explains that preference is given in ordinary course of business to empty wagons which are the property of foreign Railways and have to be speedily returned to them, as also to vans which contain perishable goods. There was consequently no unusual delay or unnecessary detention of the goods at Rungpur. The train reached Parbatipur on the evening of the 14th October in due course. The evidence shows that Parbatipur is a junction station where several lines of Railway meet, and that the trains from the several lines are dissolved, re-marshalled and made into new train.

(3.) This was done in the present instance in the usual course of business in the way described by the trains clerk at Parbatipur, who has been examined as a witness. The goods were sent on by a train which left Parbatipur on the morning of the 15th October. They could not be sent earlier, as precedence had to be given to wagona previously received. The train arrived at Sara at about 8 o clock in the evening of the 15th October, and the wagons were made over to the transshipment department on the morning of the 16th October (the order for transfer was actually made on the evening of the 15th. October immediately after the arrival of the train at Sara), Sara, it may be stated, is on the bank of the river Padma and here goods have to be carried across the river in flats to the station on the Calcutta side, named Goalbathan. The goods were loaded into one of the flats on the 16th October along with a considerable quantity of other goods brought down by various trains. On the 17th October, the steamer which carried the flats, left Sara and reached Goalbothan late in the afternoon. The flats were not unloaded that day, and the goods remained thereon. A severe cyclone passed over the locality in the evening and the result was that the steamer and the flits sank in the river. The question arises, whether, in these circumstances, the Railway Authorities can be called upon to make good the loss sustained by the plaintiff.