Judgment

SHAH, J.:- Dadiba Hormusji Boatwalla was one of the eight partners of Messrs Meghji Thobhan & Company - a firm of Muccadams and cotton brokers. Boatwalla died on February 20, 1957. By virtue of clause 8 of the deed of partnership the business of the firm was continued by the surviving partners. Khorshed and Nariman - widow and son respectively of Boatwalla - obtained letters of administration to the estate of Boatwalla and commenced an action in the High Court of Bombay for an account of the partnership between Boatwalla and the surviving partners and for an order paying to the plaintiffs the amount determined to be due to Boatwalla at the time of his death. The suit was resisted by the surviving partners who will hereinafter be called the defendants . Tarkunde, J., passed a preliminary decree declaring that qua Boatwalla the partnership stood dissolved on February 20, 1957, but not in respect of the surviving partners, and directed that an account be taken of the partnership up to February 20, 1957. Against that decree the defendants appealed under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent. In appeal the High Court modified the decree. The learned Judges held that the plaintiffs we