( 1 ) THIS appeal arises out of the order of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal at Surat whereby the claim petition of the appellants filed before it bearing No. 103 of 1977 was dismissed.

( 2 ) THE relevant facts giving rise to the aforesaid petition may be stated as under :- the appellants are the widow minor sons minor daughter and parents of the deceased Nilamchand Sadilal Sharma who met with a fatal motor accident at about 7-40 P. M. on 24/12/1976 The deceased had gone to the house of his in-laws at village Gangadhara on scooter bearing No. GTR 4557 belonging to one Chhabildas Khushaldas Modi. The deceased started from his in-laws house at about 7-00 or 7-15 P. M. having on the pillion of the scooter his brother-in-law Ramesh aged about 10 or 11 years. It is the case of the appellants that there was thick fog all along the highway. When deceased reached between village Kumbharia and Rang Kutir the scooter collided with a trailer attached to the tractor which was stationed on the left side of the road. It was the further case of the appellants that the trailer attached with the tractor was stationed without taking the requisite and the statutory precautions such as the reflectors and the red-light at the rear with the result that the deceased could not notice the tractor and consequently the accident occurred wherein the scooter driver lost his life. The tractor was facing Surat and did not have the lights either in the front or in the rear. The deceased sustained serious injuries as a result of which he died there and then and Ramesh who was sitting on the pillion also received injuries on his head and became unconscious. One Yogesh Nagjibhai Tailor who came on a Bullet Motor Cycle removed Ramesh in the rickshaw to the Civil Hospital Surat.

( 3 ) ACCORDING to the appellants the deceased was 26 years of age at the meterial time. He was very intelligent hard-working and the only earning member of the family consisting of the deceased the widow three minor children and the perents. The appellants claimed compensation of Rs. 750. 00 for the death of the deceased from the respondents the respondent No. 1 being the owner of the tractor and respondent No. 4 being the driver of it. Respondents Nos. 2 and 3 are the National Insurance Co. Ltd. and its branch office at Surat.

( 4 ) THE petition was resisted by the respondents by their written Statements (Exhs. 19 and 23 ). The defence of respondent No. 1 and respondent No. 4 is to the effect that there was no negligence much less rashness on the part of respondent No. 4 in the occurrence of the accident. They denied that there were no reflectors on the tractor and the trailer. They also denied that there was a thick fog on account of which the deceased could not see the tractor and the trailer. According to them the accident occurred only on account of the negligence on the part of the deceased himself and that they were not in any way responsible for it. They submitted that the tractor and the trailer were kept on the left side of the road in such a manner that a part of it was on the Kuchha road and they had also placed stones around so as to permit the safe passing of the vehicular traffic on the road. They further submitted that the tractor was required to be stationed because the rear left tube of the wheel was punctured. The respondents also denied the quantum of compensation claimed by the appellants.

( 5 ) THE Tribunal framed issues at Exh. 30. The Tribunal found that deceased Nilamchand Sadilal Sharma did die in the motor accident which occurred on 24/12/1976 at 7-40 P. M. near the culvert on the road in between Kumbharia and Rang Kutir in the District of Surat However on the question of negligence the Tribunal found that the deceased died as a result of his own negligence and not on account of any negligence on the part of the driver of the tractor. In view of such a finding on the question of negligence the Tribunal did not consider at all the claim of the