Privy Council Court October 1949 Judgments

Abasand Oils Ltd. Vs. Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co. of Canada

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1950PC39

LORD PORTER: This is an Appeal by special leave from a judgment of a majority of the Supreme Court of Canada dated 13th April 1948, allowing the respondent's appeal from the judgment of a majority of the Supreme Court of Alberta, Appellate Division, dated 24th December 1946, which affirmed a judgment of Shepherd J., in the Supreme Court of Alberta, Trial Division, dated 26th July 1945. By his judgment Shepherd, J., awarded the appellants $100,000 under a policy of insurance issued to the appellant by the respondent. In reversing this decision the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the plaintiff's action. 2. The appellant owned a plant at Water, ways, in the province of Alberta, at which petroleum products from the bituminous sands found there were experimentally refined. The process necessitated the use of a large boiler and separator equipment surrounding it. The boiler was fired with crude oil, at times supplemented by dry gas. 3. Undoubtedly an accident took place at the plant on 21s...

Lakshmidhar Misra and Others Vs. Rangalal and Others

Court: Privy Council

LORD RADCLIFFE: This appeal is concerned with the legal status of two parcels of land comprising 3.90 acres in all in the village of Byree, Killa Darpan, district Cuttack, Orissa. These two parcels, which may conveniently be referred to as "the disputed area", are themselves part of a Plot No. 1990-2401 in the same village, the plot lying to the west of the Bengal-Nagpur railway line which intersects the village. The documents in this case, not excluding the judgments, do not make it always an easy task to determine whether the whole Plot No. 1990-2401 is not more properly the subject of dispute than that portion of it which is described as the disputed area. In fact all the relevant evidence bears as much upon the status of the larger as of the smaller area. However that may be, the appellants' case is that the disputed area must be recognised in law as a cremation ground of the village and that, it being so, no part of the site can be made available for the purposes of private indust...

Provincial Treasurer of Manitoba Vs. Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. Ltd.

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1950PC53

LORD RADCLIFFE: This is an appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada dated 18th June 1947. The Supreme Court judgment had reversed a judgment of the Court of Appeal for the Province of Manitoba dated 19th September 1945, and by so doing had restored a judgment of the Court of King's Bench in Manitoba dated 10th March 1943. The purpose of the appeal to their Lordships therefore is to upset the judgment of the Court of King's Bench. 2. The proceedings originated with an appeal by the respondent under the appellate procedure provided by the Income Taxation Act of Manitoba. A part of the respondent's business being carried on in Manitoba and the respondent being a corporation or joint stock company, the head office of which was outside the Province, the appellant made assessments to income-tax upon the respondent in respect of the years 1936-1939 inclusive. The respondent objected to these assessments as being excessive in amount, and, so objecting, put in motion the procedure ...

Tan Teck Neo Vs. George Tan and Others

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1950PC7

LORD RADCLIFFE: The purpose of this appeal is to establish the rights of two classes of beneficiaries under the will and codicil of a Chinaman, Lee Choon Guan, who died at Singapore on 27th August 1924. One class consists of the appellant herself, the widow of the testator, and the defendant Lee Chim Tuan, a trustee of the will and codicil; the other is formed by four women whose names are given in cl. 4 of the codicil and to whom the testator directed his trustees to make certain monthly payments during their respective lives. All these beneficiaries may conveniently be referred to as "the annuitants." 2. By virtue of certain dispositions contained in the will and codicil which will be referred to in detail hereafter the testator's residuary estate fell to be finally divided among his grandchildren and remoter descendants at the expiration of 21 years from his death, namely, on 27th August 1945, At that date all the annuitants were still living. The construction of the will and codici...

Sm. Savitri Devi and Others Vs. Ram Ran Bijoy Prasad Singh and Others

Court: Privy Council

Reported in: AIR1950PC1

SIR JOHN BEAUMONT: This is an appeal by leave of the High Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal from the judgment and decree of that Court in its civil appellate jurisdiction, dated 26th August 1946, affirming a judgment and decree of the same Court in its ordinary original civil jurisdiction, dated 4th September 1942, dismissing with costs the suit of the plaintiff which sought to set aside a compromise decree. No relief is claimed against respondents 2, 3 and 4 who have not appeared in the appeal. 2. The litigation relates to the title to an ancient impartible Raj known as the Dumraon Raj, which is said to be of the value of four crofts of rupees. The original plaintiff and defendant had a common ancestor in one Parbal Singh who died in the year A. D. 1672. Parbal had a grandson, Raja Horil Singh, who founded the Dumraon branch of the family, and a grand-son, Udwant Singh, who founded the Jagadishpur branch of the family. The last undisputed owner of the Dumraon Raj was Mahar...