VATHYAM BALARAMA SASTRI Vs. VAVILALA VASUDEVA SASTRI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal from a judgment and decree of the High Court of Judicature at Madras, which reversed a judgment and decree of the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Guntur, raises a pure question of fact and it appears to their Lordships that the only matter for their consideration is whether the appellate tribunal was justified in reversing the judgment of the trial Judge who had had the advantage, denied to it, of seeing and hearing the witnesses.

(2.) The suit in which this appeal is brought was instituted by the present respondent, who claimed against the present appellant to be entitled to two - thirds of the cash standing to the credit of one Vathyam Verri Janikamma, then lately deceased, at certain banks. This claim was based on an agreement made between the parties dated 7 - 3 - 1940, which in fact recorded a compromise arrived at between them for the settlement of outstanding disputes in relation to the estate of Janikamma.

(3.) The claim was resisted by the appellant on the ground that the agreement was brought about by fraud, misrepresentation, coercion or the undue influence of the appellant's own natural father, Bhogappayya Sastri, and it was rejected by the Subordinate Judge on the ground that the agreement was without consideration and was brought about by the undue influence alleged.