9911796707
TMI Blog1938 (3) TMI 23X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lost through any dishonest action on the part of the defendants. Nobody knows how they were lost, but the presumption is that they were stolen. At any rate they were lost, and the plaintiffs sued for damages for the loss of those three bars. The learned Judge held upon the facts that the defendants were guilty of negligence in the manner in which they kept the bars. I do not think that point can be seriously disputed. The defendants kept the bars, with a number of other bars, in their pedhi in Bombay, placed against the wall, the pedhi being open. They were not locked up in any way. The defendants say that the pedhi was never left without somebody being present, there was always either a servant or a partner, but obviously that evidence can ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he bars had been purchased and kept here at your risk. The learned Judge treated the contract between the parties as a contract in which the bars were retained by the defendants at the risk of the plaintiffs, but he held that the words at your risk were not enough to absolve the defendants from the act of negligence which resulted in the plaintiffs' loss. If I agreed with the learned Judge as to the nature of the contract between the parties, I should not be prepared to accept his view as to its legal effect. But, in my opinion, the contract between the parties was not a contract to keep the bars at the risk of the plaintiffs. The offers contained in the telegrams were accepted by the defendants when they executed them, and in my vi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n Co., Ltd. I.L.R. (1908) Mad. 95., held that it was open to a bailee to contract himself out of the obligations imposed by Section 151, and I feel no doubt whatever that that view is correct. The Act does not expressly prohibit contracting out of Section 151 and it would be a startling thing to say that persons sui juris are not at liberty to enter into such a contract of bailment as they may think fit. Contracts of bailment are very common, although they are not always called by their technical name. I can see no reason why a man should not be at liberty to agree to keep property belonging to a friend on the terms that such property is to be entirely at the risk of the owner and that the man who keeps it is to be under no liability for th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... because there is nothing else on which it can fasten. Had I therefore taken the same view as the learned Judge as to the nature of the contract between the parties, I should have said that the defendants have contracted themselves out of their liability as bailees. But, in my opinion, the true contract between the parties was that the defendants were to hold the bars for a reasonable trine as ordinary bailees, and it was not open to the defendants to alter the contract until a reasonable time had expired, and they never suggested that a reasonable time had expired. In my opinion, therefore, the appeal fails and. must be dismissed with costs. H.J. Kania, J. 4. The facts are stated in the judgment of the learned Chief Justice. On the q ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
