SECRETARY OF STATE Vs. RISHI RAM JAGDISH PRASAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This second appeal arises out of a suit brought by the plaintiff-respondent firm against the Secretary of State for India in Council as representing the North- Western Railway and against the Agent of the B.B. & C.I. Ry. Co. Ltd. (which defendants will in this judgment be called "the Railway Company") for the value of sacks of wheat which the plaintiff alleged to have been wrongly delivered by the railway company concerned to a person not entitled to them at Bombay.

(2.) The facts of the case, so far as they are necessary for deciding the present appeal are as follows: The goods were consigned from Saharanpur on the 13th May 1921, and reached Bombay on the 29 May 1921. They were unloaded on the 30 May 1921, and delivered on the 31 May, 1921 to the Prince of Wales Flour Mills. The railway receipt at Saharanpur was handed over to the plaintiff, the plaintiff himself being entered both as consignor and consignee. Without endorsing the same he sent it by post to one Shiv Ram Narain. Shiv Ram Narain endorsed to the Prince of Wales Flour Mills which firm took delivery. On the same day, but after delivery of the goods, the plaintiff gave notice to the railway company not to deliver the goods to Shiv Narain or any one else but himself. The sole question, with which we are concerned in this appeal, is whether the railway company acted illegally in making the goods over to the Prince of Wales Flour Mills.

(3.) This is a remarkable case. On the facts, as stated, the railway company had a simple reply, and it was as follows: The plaintiff by sending the railway receipt to Shiv Ram Narain appointed him as his agent for taking delivery of the goods by implication. We delivered the goods to the Prince of Wales Flour Mills, who was appointed sub-agent of the plaintiff's agent by endorsement of Shiv Ram Narain to the Prince of Wales Flour Mills on the receipt.