BENGAL NATIONAL BANK, LTD Vs. JATINDRA NATH MAZUMDAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this suit, the plaintiffs claim against the defandants is for the balance of a current account. The defendants Amar Nath Banerjee and Hiralal Mukherjee do not contest the suit. It is admitted that the defendants carried on business in partnership under the firm name of Banerjee Mukherjee & Co., and opened an overdraft account with the plaintiff bank, which is now in liquidation and it was arranged that each partner should be eligible to sign cheques in the firm name, adding thereto his own initials, and that the bank would advance money to enable the defendants to purchase materials and on receipt of the bills given in payment for goods supplied by defendants to customers would collect these on commission and deduct the balance from the overdraft. The defendant Jatindra Nath, however, says that this partnership was dissolved in 1921, and that the plaintiffs had notice thereof. That thereupon he ceased to have any interest in the business, which was carried on by the other two defendants alone, and that he commenced a separate business on his own account. He says also, and this seems to be true, that whatever sum was due to the bank at the time of dissolution has been repaid. He has produced a deed of dissolution dated 24 June 1921, and I have no reason to think that it is other than genuine. He has also produced a carbon copy of a letter dated 27 June 1921, giving notice of the dissolution, which he says that he handed personally to Bhupendra Nath Banerji, who was the managing director of the plaintiff bank, after giving him verbal notice at or about the date of dissolution.

(2.) He admits, however, that he did not obtain a receipt for this notice, nor did he receive any acknowledgment from the bank nor did he give any notice to firm's dealing with Banerjee Mukherjee & Co., nor did he advertise the fact of dissolution in the Exchange Gazette, nor in any of the Vernacular Gazettes nor in any English newspaper.

(3.) On the contrary Bhupendra has been called and has stated emphatically that he never had any notice of the dissolution either verbally or in writing until after the institution of the suit and he has produced the bank's Letter Receipt Book which confirms his statement.