The measure of damages for non-delivery of goods by a common carrier is the market value of the goods at the place of destination less transportation and delivery charges.

The defendant in M. S. No. 15/57 has preferred this appeal against the judgment and decree passed by the learned Subordinate Judge, L. A. D. Now-gong-camp at Tezpur, by which he decreed the plaintiffs-respondent's suit for Rs. 7410, made up of Rs. 6238 being the market value of the goods not delivered at the rate of Rs. 2-12-0 per maund; Rs. 219 as freight claimed for one consignment in which goods of one wagon were delivered out of two wagons and Rs. 953 as special damages for the loss suffered due to stoppage of the plaintiffs' mill for want of coal which was caused due to the non-deli-vary of the coal by the defendant.

3. The plaintiffs' case is that they are the owners of Kalyan Rice and Oil Mills at Tezpur. For running the mill, the plaintiffs indented on various dates Assam coal from Margherita, Ledo and Naginimora Railway stations under the North-Eastern Railway, as it was then called, under the invoice and Railway Receipts as follows:

1. One wagon No. 15285 of 11 tons (300 maunds) under Invoice No. 9, R/R No. 485322 dated 7th August 1956.

2. One wagon No. 15696 of 11 tons (300 maunds) under Invoice No. 10, R/R No. 485340 dated 16th August 1956.

3. One wagon No. 30445 of 14 tons (381 maunds) under Invoice No. 2, R/R No. 485340 dated 30th October 1956.

4. One wagon No. 15313 of 300 maunds under Invoice No. 5, R/R No. 081584 dated 18th March 1957.

5. One wagon No. 22599 of 18 tons (490 maunds) under Invoice No. 3, R/R No. 020020 dated 30th November 1956.

6. Two wagons Nos. 16497 and 177216 of 12 tons and 18% tons respectively des­patched under Invoice No. 30 R/R No. 1852 dated 13th March 1957.

The total value of the coal in consign­ments Nos. 1 and 2 above is Rs. 1650 at Tezpur market rate at the relevant time. The market values of coal in consignments in item Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6 are Rs. 1048, Rs. 825, Rs. 1348 and Rs. 1367 respectively. The plaintiffs paid the price of the goods to the consignor coal company in advance and thus they are the owners thereof. The goods of the above consignments were not deliver­ed to the plaintiffs-consignees and therefore they serve a notices under Section 77 of the Indian Railways Act and under Section 80, Civil Procedure Code on the defendant Accordingly they brought the suit for recovery of Rupees 6238 as the market value of the goods not delivered and Rs. 1905 for loss suffered due to stoppage of the mill for want of coal and Rs. 219 as the freight realised for the goods undelivered of Invoice No. 30 in Them 6 above.

3. The defendant raised various conten­tions in the written statement, such as, non-service of valid and proper statutory notices, that there was no cause of action for the suit, that the plaintiffs have no right to sue, that the suit was barred by limitation, that the claim was highly excessive and that the plaintiffs were not entitled to remote damages and so on.

4. A number of issues were framed in the case. The plaintiffs examined four wit­nesses and defendants examined one wit­ness Both the parties filed certain docu­ments which were marked as exhibits in the case. The learned Subordinate Judge decreed the suit for Rs. 1410 as stated above.

5. Mr. R. K. Goswami, the learned counsel appearing for the defendant-appel­lant, has raised mainly two points which re­quire consideration in this appeal. His first contention is that no legally valid notice under Section 80, Civil P. C., was served in the instant case and as such the suit is not maintainable. On this point, he has drawn our attention to Ext. 7 and Ext 10 which are the two composite notices under Section 77, Indian Railways Act and under Section 80, Civil Procedure Code Ext 7 is a composite notice in respect of (i) invoice No. 9, R/R No. 485322 under wagon No. 15285 NEKC dated 7th August 1956, and (ii) invoice No. 10, R/R 485340 under wagon No. 15696 NEKC dated 16th August 1956. It may be observed that in this notice the value of the goods has been stated to be Rs. 571-10-0 and the amount of loss sustain­ed by the