- (1.) This was a suit brought by certain persons carrying on business as merchants in London, against the late Raja Pratap Chandra Sing. The Raja died during the progress of the suit, and the present defendants are his minor sons represented by the Court of Wards. The suit was for the recovery of rupees 2,92,000, as balance due up to the 19th June 1865, upon an account current between the plaintiffs and a firm carrying on business under the style of W.N. Watson and Co., of which firm it was alleged that the Raja was a member. There were two partners residing in Calcutta, prior to 1865, Thomas Ogilvy Watson and his son William Noel Watson. The history of the business transactions of the Watsons prior to 1863 is not very clearly stated, but it seems that for some time they carried on business together without any agreement of partnership. The plaintiffs and the Raja represent them as carrying on business as early as 1860; whereas the elder Watson, who has been examined, says the firm commenced in the beginning of 1862. The style of the firm from that date, at any rate, was W.N. Watson and Co., and this is the firm of which the Raja is said to have been a partner.
(2.) The dealings between the firm of W.N. Watson and Co. and the plaintiffs appear to have commenced in the year 1862, and they consisted in the two firms consigning goods to each other in the usual course of business. On the 19th January 1863, an agreement was entered into between T.O. Watson, acting on behalf of himself and his son W.N. Watson, and the plaintiffs, stating the terms on which the plaintiffs agreed to transact business with the firm of W.N. Watson and Co. It regulates the commission which is to be charged by the plaintiffs and W.N. Watson and Co. on their respective consignments, and authorizes the firm of W.N. Watson and Co. to draw on the plaintiffs in the usual way against consignments, leaving a specified margin. This agreement was used by W.N. Watson and Co. as a letter of credit in their transactions in Calcutta.
(3.) The history of the connection between the Raja and the Watsons during its earlier period is also extremely vague. It seems to have began about the year 1862, and to have consisted in the Raja accepting their bills in order to enable them to raise money and carry on business as merchants, and in his occasionally advancing them money in cash. No account has been given on either side in the coarse of this case of the advances made by the Raja to the Watsons prior to August 1863; but it is clear that whatever capital was required in the business came from him, the elder Watson having nothing and the younger Watson a very vaguely stated sum of somewhere about rupees 10,000. It is also clear that from 1862, bills for a considerable amount were drawn by the Watsons upon the Raja, and though the business is said to have been at that time prosperous, these bills were for the most part not paid by the Watsons, and the Raja had either to pay or renew them. Thomas Ogilvy Watson states that, between January and August 1863, the Raja advanced cash and retired bills to the amount of rupees 90,000; and says, that during the year 1862, the Raja had assisted the firm largely by acceptances. It is therefore probable that in August 1863, from which time the history of the case becomes clearer, the firm of W.N. Watson and Co. was very largely indebted to the Raja.;