- (1.) THESE are two appeals (Regular First Appeal No. 241 of 1950 and Regular First appeal No. 215 of 1952) filed by the Dominion of India, as it then was, against decrees passed in two suits by a Court at Amritsar in favour of the plaintiff, a body describing itself as the Commercial Association of Amritsar, for Rs. 18,786/7/3-and rs. 4,393/1/3 with costs in both cases.
(2.) ALTHOUGH the details in the two suits are slightly different, the main points involved are common and it was on this account that the appeal against the smaller decree was transferred to this Court from the Court of the District Judge to be heard with the other case. Both suits were for the recovery of damages for the non-delivery of goods, which in each case consisted of quantities of cloth.
(3.) THE plaintiff is an association formed of 312 members all of whom apparently are firms or individuals in Amritsar dealing in cloth. The suits were both instituted by four members in a representative capacity on behalf of the members of the association as a whole, the remaining members being notified of the suit, and the four members who instituted the suit obtaining permission of the Court to sue in a representative capacity under Order I, Rule 8, Civil Procedure Code. Other persons were joined as defendants along with the Dominion of India in both suits, a firm of commission agents named Messrs, Dewan Chand --Sheri Lal carrying on business at Bombay and Amritsar being impleaded in one suit while an-other firm of commission agents similarly carrying on business at Ahmedabad and Amritsar and named Messrs Jagat Ram--Brij Mohan was 'impleaded in the other suit in which also an insurance company, the Standard General Assurance company Limited of Calcutta, was also impleaded. In each case it was alleged that the firm of commission agents had despatched quantities of cloth to Jammu Tawi, a station on the North Western Railway. In one case the goods were despatched by the defendant firm of commission agents from ahmedabad on the 8th of August 1947 and in the other case the consignment of cloth was despatched from Carnac Bridge Bombay on the 14th of August 1947. In each case the railway receipt was endorsed by the commission agents in favour of the plain tiff Association on payment of the value of the goods. The plaintiff association thus became entitled to take delivery of the goods when received at the place of destination, but in neither case was the Association able to obtain delivery on presenting the railway receipts.;