RAJENDRALAL MANEKLAL Vs. SURAT CITY MUNICIPALITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The facts of this case are set forth in the able and elaborate judgment of the learned First Class Subordinate Judge. Briefly, the plaintiff sues to recover damages from the Surat Municipality on account of injury done by storm water to certain garden land of his known as the Gopitalao, alleging that it was owing to the negligence of the Municipality that the water first broke into his garden, and that having broken in, it did not drain off.

(2.) The negligence alleged is of three kinds: firstly, improper and inadequate construction of the sluice gate known as the Macca dam ; secondly, defendant's refusal or omission to drain the water off the garden by means of a disused culvert that once connected it with the main ditch; and, thirdly, defendant's failure to keep the ditch cleared from obstruction and the sluice ga|te in proper working order.

(3.) Now, the first of these allegations is demonstrated to be unsustainable by the plaintiff's own expert witness, as the learned Subordinate Judge has shewn. Mr. Maneklal Engineer (Exhibit 23) deposes that " if the sluice gates had been kept open, the Gopitalao would not have suffered any damage from the overflow of the waters." Evidently, therefore, plaintiff cannot assert that the damage was caused to his property by faulty construction of the original works.