RANEEGUNJ COAL ASSOCIATION LTD Vs. TATA IRON AND STEEL CO LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE point for decision on this appeal is the true construction of one clause in an agreement dated January 16, 1919, and made between the appellants and the respondents. By the agreement the appellants (called therein "the sellers") sell to the respondents (called therein "the buyers") the output of coal from certain seams in their collieries, for a period which commenced on April 1, 1921, and which has still a few years to run.

(2.) THE clause in question is the 4th clause, which1 runs as follows:- In the month of January immediately preceding the commencement of a year (which term, shall for the purpose of this agreement be deemed to meatn a period of twelve calendar months commencing on the first day of April and ending on 'the thirty-first day of March) the price payable by the buyers for the coal to be delivered during such year shall be settled and adjusted at eight annas per ton above the price payable under or in respect of the then latest contract for the purchase of first class Jharriah coal loaded into wagons at colliery siding entered into by the Railway Board or if that Board shall have been abolished then by such authority as shall be constituted or established in its place or if no such authority shall be established or if no purchase shall have been made by such Board or authority for nine months prior to the commencement of such year then purchasers in the Calcutta Market provided, nevertheless that the price so to be settled and adjusted as aforesaid shall; in no case be less than Rupees three and annas twelve per ton.

(3.) A difference thereupon arose between the parties, and it became necessary to have the clause authoritatively construed; and for that purpose the respondents instituted the present suit in which, as ultimately settled by the Court, the relief sought took the following form:- (a) Whether on the true construction, of Clause 4 of the agreement of January 16, 1919, and on the basis of there being, no1 contract for the purchase of first class Jharriah coal made by the Railway Board or any similar authority between July 1 and January 31 following the plaintiffs are entitled to have the price of the coal supplied by the defendant under the agreement in the year commencing from the following April 1 calculated on the footing of the latest purchaser's contract in the Calcutta market entered into during the said period i.e. between July 1 and January 31 following; or on what other basis such price should be calculated.