- (1.) THIS is a suit to recover a sum of Rs. 71,000 on a contract of fire insurance on certain cotton bales which were destroyed by fire at Lasoor on March 23, 1952.
(2.) THE plaintiff if the owner of various business carried on in the names and style of Narandas Chunilal and Chunilal Motilal including that of a cotton ginning and pressing factory at Lasoor in Hyderabad State. The business of the factory is carried on in the name of Narandas Chunilal. The head office of the plaintiff is at Jalna in Hyderabad State. The business were managed by the plaintiff's adoptive mother Tarabai till her death in April, 1952. After her death these business are being managed by the plaintiff's natural mother Mahabalkumari. The plaintiff also owns a textile mill at Gadag. When the suit was filed the plaintiff was a minor. He attained majority before the suit came on for hearing and the suit was thereafter continued by him. The defendants are an insurance company incorporated in New Zealand and have a branch office in Bombay. The parties were known to one another as the textile mills at Gadag were insured against risk of fire with the defendants through Messrs. Navinchandra Jethabhai who are the chief agents in Bombay of the defendants. The firm of Navinchandra Jethabhai were authorised to accept insurance business on behalf of the defendants.
(3.) IT is the plaintiff's case that on Saturday, March 22, 1952, the plaintiff's Bombay office received a letter from the Jalna head office asking the Bombay office to effect insurance on certain cotton bales lying in the compound of the plaintiff's factory at Lasoor, in a sum of Rs. 2,00,000. The letter was stated to have been received in Bombay in the afternoon of March 22, 1952, and immediately thereafter Joshi, the plaintiff's representative in Bombay, went to the office of Navinchandra Jethabhai and proposed an insurance of these cotton bales. Messrs. Navinchandra Jethabhai, according to the plaintiff, accepted the said proposal made on behalf of the defendants and insured the cotton bales for Rs. 2,00,000 covering the risk on the said bales from March 22, 1952, to March 22, 1953. According to the plaintiff Messrs. Navinchandra Jethabhai at the time stated that as it was Saturday afternoon the cover note would be sent by post to Jalna on Monday, March 24. Particulars of this contract were asked for and the plaintiff through his attorneys stated that the interview of March 22 took place between Joshi the manager of the plaintiff in Bombay and Laxmichand an employee of the firm of Navinchandra Jethabhai. On March 26, the Jalna office received the cover note sent by Navinchandra Jethabhai on behalf of the defendants. The cover note stated that the cotton bales at Lasoor were insured against the risk of fire as from March 22, 1952, until March 22, 1953, and that a premium of Rs. 2,666-11-3 was to be paid by the plaintiff on or before April 21, 1952. It is the plaintiff's case that in the meantime a fire broke out at the Lasoor factory on March 23, in the afternoon at 4. 30. There was no fire brigade at Lasoor. A fire brigade from Aurangabad was sent for and the fire was extinguished in the early morning of March 24. Intimation of the fire was received by the plaintiff's Bombay office from the head office at Jalna on the evening of March 24 by a telegram and the defendants were given intimation of the fire on the morning of March 25 at about 11-30. The defendants declined all liability to the plaintiff in respect of this insurance. Correspondence ensued between the parties in the course of which the plaintiff offered to pay the amount of the premium, but the defendants declined to accept the same on the ground that they had declined all liability under the contract of insurance.;