RAM COOMAR COONDOO Vs. CHUNDER CANTO MOOKERJEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS suit was instituted by the appellants, who were the successful defendants in two former suits brought by one McQueen and his wife against them, to recover from the defendant, Chunder Canto Mookerjee, who was neither an original nor added party in those suits, the amount of the costs incurred by them in that litigation, and which McQueen and his wife, by reason of their poverty, were unable to pay.

(2.) THE principal suit of the McQueens (the other being for mesne profits only) was brought in the Hooghly Court to recover from the present plaintiffs some lands in Howrah, which their father had purchased of one Bebee Bunnoo. Mrs. McQueen was the illegitimate daughter of one McDonald and Bebee Bunnoo, and she claimed the property as her father's, and as being entitled to it, after her mother's death, under his will. The defence of the now plaintiffs in that suit was that Bebee Bunnoo was either the real owner, or had bean allowed by McDonald to deal with the property as owner, and that their father was a purchaser from her without notice of any other title. It appears that they and their father had held possession of the property for 24 years after the purchase, and had greatly improved it.

(3.) ON an appeal to Her Majesty, the decree of the High Court was reversed, and it was ordered that the suits should be dismissed, and that the then defendants (the now plaintiffs) should have their costs in India and of their appeal to Her Majesty. These costs amounted to a large sum, and the McQueens were unable to pay them.