Privy Council Court July 1936 Judgments

Vernon Lloyd-owen Vs. Alfred E. Bull and Others

Court: Privy Council

LORD BLANESBURGH: This is an appeal by special leave from a judgment of the Court of appeal for British Columbia dated 17th July 1935, affirming an order of the Supreme Court dated 28th March 1985. The petition on which the order of the Supreme Court was made was presented on 13th March 1935, by the appellant and the respondent Johh S. Salter as liquidator in the voluntary liquidation of a British Columbian company, Pioneer Gold Mines, Limited, to be referred to throughout as "the company." By the petition the liquidator submitted himself to the Court but took no active steps in the case. It was the appellant, a minority contributory of the company, was the active party. The petition prayed for an order that the liquidator be directed in the company's name to take action against the respondents other than himself, for the recovery of property and assets alleged to be the property of the company and for other relief. Alternatively the appellant asked for leave to bring an action in the ...

Someshwari Prasad NaraIn Deo and Others Vs. Maheshwari Prasad NaraIn D ...

Court: Privy Council

SIR SHADI LAL: The dispute in this appeal relates to the succession to an estate, situate in the Province of Behar, which is known as the Dhanwar Estate. The succession opened on the death of Ran Bahadur Narain Deo, which took place on 6th October 1900. He left surviving him, two sons, Ishwari Prasad Narain Deo and Harihar Prasad Narain Deo. It appears that the Court of Wards had taken possession of the estate in the lifetime of the deceased, but released it after his death to his elder son Ishawari Prasad. The suit was commenced in 1917 by the younger son for a partition of the estate, and subsequently his sons and other persons were added as plaintiffs. The claim was resisted on the ground that the estate was impartible, and that the succession to it was governed by the rule of lineal primogeniture. It was pleaded that the plaintiff, Harihar Prasad, being a junior member of the family, was entitled, not to a share in the estate, but only to maintenance. The Courts below, the Subordin...

Mt. Binda Kuer and Others Vs. Lalita Prasad Choudhary and Others

Court: Privy Council

SIR GEORGE RANKIN: These are two consolidated appeals brought by the plaintiffs whose suit was decreed by the Subordinate Judge of Muzaffarpur on 16th August 1928, but was dismissed by two decrees of the High Court of Patna on 14th December 1932. The plaintiffs claimed declaration of their title to, and a decree for possession of, a half share of the properties referred to in the plaint as having belonged to one Bajrangi Lal, who died in 1861, and whose widow, Mt. Amola Kuer, died in 1916. The plaintiffs' case was that they, together with defendant 63, were entitled to half, and that defendants 1 and 2 and the husband of defendant 3 were entitled to the other half. A number of other persons were impleaded as purchasers from the widow of different items of her husband's property, but both Courts in India have negatived the pleas of legal necessity and the purchaser respondents can make no higher case than those respondents who are members of the family. Their Lordships will use the expr...

Stephen Seneviratne Vs. the King

Court: Privy Council

LORD ROCHE: This is an appeal by special leave from a verdict and sentence given and passed in the Supreme Court of the Island of Ceylon on 14th June 1934. The appellant was charged with having murdered his wife on 15th October 1933, and after a trial lasting 21 days he was found guilty by a majority of five to two of the jury, one of the five in the majority recommending him to mercy. Sentence of death was passed but this sentence was commuted to one of rigorous imprisonment for life. The main ground of the appeal is that on the evidence a verdict of guilty could not properly or safely be found and that the jury ought to have been so directed, and that in these circumstances such grave injustice had been done as to require the interference of His Majesty. The appellant also complained of certain specific matters in the conduct of the trial as causing or contributing to the miscarriage of justice. Such matters were: that a very large amount of hearsay evidence was admitted and was used...

Vinayakrao Dhundiraj Biwalkar Vs. Secy. of State

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1936PC312

LORD ROCHE: This suit was instituted by the plaintiff in the District Court at Thana against the Secretary of State for India in Council for a declaration that he is the inamdar and owner of the soil and has full proprietary rights in the suit lands, and for possession and mesne profits. The District Judge dismissed the suit as to merits and for want of jurisdiction. He also thought that the suit was barred by limitation of time. The judgment of the Bombay High Court affirmed his decision as to merits and dismissed the appeal without deciding the questions of jurisdiction or limitation. The plaintiff claims under grants made to his ancestor Vinayak in the earlier part of last century by Raghoji Angria, the Ruler of the Kolaba State, which had formed part of the territories extending from Bombay to Goa over which the notorious Kanoji Angria established his rule in 1713. For more than 40 years he and his descendants carried on a piratical war against shipping in the Indian Ocean until th...

Ganesh Chunder Dhur Vs. Lal Behary Dhur and Others

Court: Privy Council

LORD THANKERTON: This appeal raises a question as to the validity of the provisions for the shebaitship of certain Hindu idols made by the will of Luckey Narain Dhur, who was a Hindu governed by the Dayabhag School of Hindu Law, and who died on 26th March 1927. The following genealogical table will show the relationship of the parties: The testator was survived by his widow and by his three sons. The material clauses of the will, which was made and published on 18th November 1923, and under which his sons Kartick and Ram were appointed executors, are as follows: 9. Subject to the payments aforesaid I give the rest and residue of my estate unto my executors and trustees upon trust to pay the balance of the income of my said estate to the shebaits for the time being of the Thacoors Netai Gour and, etc., established by me and located at my family dwelling House No. 23, Sankaritola Lane to be applied by the said shebaits for the time being for the expenses of daily Sheba and periodical fes...

Parashram Balaji Deshmukh and Another Vs. Asaram and Others

Court: Privy Council

SIR SHADI LAL: The plaintiffs, who are the appellants before their Lordships, seek to enforce a mortgage, which was executed on 7th April 1914, and registered on 8th April 1914. The mortgaged property consisted of six items, two of which were purchased from the mortgagors by defendants 2-4 in 1925. These defendants impeach the registration of the mortgage deed upon a ground, which as set out in para. 6 of their written statement, is in the following terms: . . . that the registration of the mortgage deed covering as it did the mango trees, Jambhul trees, Babul trees and all other kinds of trees situate in occupancy fields Nos. 195, 106 and 207 of Kelod, is void as being in contravention of S. 46, Cl. (5), Tenancy Act, 1898. The mortgage deed is thus not duly registered and being as good as not registered, cannot operate as a mortgage. On the issue, which was founded upon this plea, the trial Judge expressed his opinion in favour of the plaintiffs, but, on appeal by the purchasers, his ...

Hugh Crawford Magee Vs. Charles W. Magee and Others

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1936PC329

LORD RUSELL OF KILLOWEN: This is an appeal from a judgment of the Court of Appeal of British Columbia which declared the true intent and meaning of the will of one Hugh Magee, who died on 9th March 1909. The testator devised certain lands and bequeathed all his personal property to his wife. No question arises in regard thereto. It is only in relation to his residuary real estate that controversy has arisen. This he devised to trustees upon trusts declared in the following words: Upon trust to retain, manage, lease, sell or otherwise dispose of the whole or any part thereof as to them may seem fit with the discretion of absolute owners and after paying my funeral and testamentary expenses and debts to invest the proceeds of the said moneys of my real estate in or upon any public stocks, funds, shares or securities of whatsoever nature or kind as to them may seem fit. Upon trust to pay the income of the trust premises first thereout discharging all liabilities in respect to my estate as...

Enid Browne Vs. Florence Yoda Moody and Others

Court: Privy Council

LORD MACMILLAN: In this appeal their Lordships have to determine the interpretation and effect of certain provisions in the will of the late Mrs. Katherine Hamilton Browne of Toronto. The testatrix died on 17th March 1930. She was survived by a son, William George Hamilton Browne, and three daughters, Mrs. Florence Moody, Mrs. Constance Kinnear and Mrs. Helen Smith; she was also survived by a grand-daughter, Enid Browne, the daughter of her son, William George Hamilton Browne. By her will, which was dated 16th December 1929, the testatrix appointed executors and after certain specific bequests in favour of her son she gave directions with regard to a sum of $100,000 in the following terms, which it is necessary to quote textually, as the arguments in the appeal turned largely upon the precise language employed : 5. Whereas I have now the sum of $100,000.00 invested in the name of E. H. Watt, of the said firm of Watt and Watt, in trust in the form of a call loan, I hereby direct that th...

Venkata Hanumantha Bhushana Rao Garu Vs. Gade Subbayya and Another

Court: Privy Council

SIR SHADI LAL: These consolidated appeals arise out of a suit brought to recover money on a mortgage by a sale of the mortgaged property. The mortgage-deed was executed on 13th July 1911, in favour of one Nagabhushanam, the predecessor in interest of the plaintiff, by a Hindu widow Seshamma, who has inherited her husband's property, for a widow's estate. The trial Judge dismissed the suit, but on appeal the High Court at Madras has decreed the claim, but has disallowed compound interest on the ground that the stipulation for the payment of compound interest at an enhanced rate was in the nature of a penalty. Both the parties have appealed to His Majesty in Council, and after considering the arguments advanced on their behalf, their Lordships are of opinion that there is no substance in either of the appeals. The relevant facts may be shortly stated. The indebtedness of the widow Seshamma commenced in January 1883, when she entered into a compromise with the mortgagee in order to settle...