Amberson Marten, C J - (1.)This is an extraordinary case, and one to which, in the view I take, the learned trial Judge has not given the care which it deserves. The suit is one to have an award in an arbitration out of Court filed and a decree passed thereon. A startling circumstance in the case is that whereas the agreement for reference (Exhibit 28) was on September 11, 1920, the award was not made till after five years afterwards, viz,, on October 6, 1925. Nor is there any reasonable excuse for that delay put forward. On the facts it would appear that the arbitrator had two meetings of the parties in 1920 within the first two months or so of the reference, but that thereafter nothing whatever was done except that part of the property included in the reference was divided up by agreement between the parties. Notwithstanding this long lapse of time the arbitrator never called the parties again before making his award; and he kept no notes of the evidence in 1920 except some memoranda about certain ornaments and accounts. He does not appear even to have given any notice to the parties that he was proposing to make this award, but proceeded to execute this long document which in itself contains provisions which the appellant, defendant No. 1, objects to.
(2.)The mere statement of the above facts at once raises the query in the mind of any lawyer as to how an award could be validly enforced after such an unconscionable and unexplained delay. No case of this sort can be found in the books. Nothing approaching it is within my own recollection even in India. The attention of the learned Judge seems mainly to have been diverted to other points in the case, viz., as to two stupid lies which defendant No. 1 told, viz., first, that he never signed the reference paper at all, and, secondly, that if he did, he at once abandoned the arbitration. The second point, of course, would not really avail him, for, even if he purported to abandon the arbitration, he could not do so legally unless good cause was shown for taking that course.
(3.)Having disposed of those two points of fact, the learned Judge thus deals with Issue No. 3 as to whether the long interval between the reference and the making of the award vitiates the award. He says:- In the reference paper no date was fixed on or before which the arbitrator had to make his award. The evidence of the arbitrator shows that his award was delayed owing to the difference of opinion in the matter of partition of defendant 2-s house. No authority has been cited to show that long interval between the reference and the making of the award vitiates the award. My finding, therefore, on issue 3 is in the negative.