UNION OF INDIA UOI Vs. ALLIANCE ASSURANCE CO LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is au appeal by the Union of India representing the Eastern Railway Administration from a decree for Rs. 11, 928.37 in favour of the respondent Alliance Assurance Company Limited in sespect of a claim for loss and/or non-delivery of certain goods, to wit certain tyres and tubes specified in the plaint and consigned from Bansabali on the Eastern Railway to Nagpur.

(2.) The consignment was effected by the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company of India Limited on April 7, 1953. It consisted of 467 packages of tyres and other rubber accessories. The goods were covered by an insurance policy of the Alliance Assurance Company Limited. sonic of these packages were never delivered at the destination station. The Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company Limited claimed from the plaintiff as an insurer and the latter paid to the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company Limited a sum of Rs. 11,928-10-0 being the value ot the non-delivered goods. There is no dispute as to the loss or the shortage. The Union of India which was the first defendant in the suit raised various defences and a number of issues were struck but the only one to which the appeal is confined is issue No. 4, namely, whether there was any valid or sufficient notice under Section 77 of the Railways Act served on the proper authority. The adjudication of this issue depends on the proper construction to be put on certain correspondence coupled with the evidence adduced, The Insurance Company addressed a letter to the General Manager, Eastern Railway which was posted at Calcutta on June 2, 1953 and delivered to the addressee on the next day. The letter itself was dated May 29. 1953 and was headed.

(3.) Two witnesses were examined on behalf of the plaintiff. The first witness J.N. Moorty was incharge of the Export and Import and Claims of the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Co. of India Ltd. He proved the insurance police effected by the second defendant and said that the said defendant had received a cheque in settlement of its claim for Rs. 11,928-10-0. The second witness K.C. Chakraborty who was in charge of the Marine Department of the plaintiff said that the cheque was handed over to a representative of the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Co. of India Limited on May 30, 1953 and a receipt therefor was obtained on June 2. 1953. The document of subrogotion and assignment was executed on June 11, 1953.