Lord Phillimore :-

The appellants who are the plaintiffs constitute a French firm of merchants carrying on business at Madras as exporters of ground nuts, castor seeds and other country produce.

The respondents, the defendant Com pany, are merchants in London who, from August, 1913, down to the date of the present suit, were intermediaries for the placing of the appellants' merchandise at European Continental ports, especially Marseilles.

The suit was brought for the price of a cargo of castor seeds sold by the appellants to the respondents. The respondents set up certain defence to some of the items in the appellants' claim, but there was no answer to the bulk of it, and their real ground for refusing to pay was that they had a counter-claim against the appel lants for a larger amount in respect of the non-delivery of a cargo of ground nuts, which should have been despatched in December, 1916, or January, 1917, to Marseilles.

It was this counter-claim that formed and forms the real matter in dispute. The trial Judge decided against the counter claim, but the High Court at Madras in its appellate jurisdiction reversed this decision and gave judgment for the coun ter-claim - hence the p