1. One Krishnan Nair alias Appu Nair was a member of the Piravom Panchayat. He left his house during the early hours on 13-12-1982 to have a dip in a nearby canal, without any premonition that he would be entrapped by the death warrant so imminently. A live wire, snapped out of the cup joint on an electric post, was lying on the road and Krishnan Nair accidentally came across with the live wire and he slumped down and breathed his last. Thus his life was snuffed in a trice. His aged mother, his widow and children initiated action against the Kerala State Electricity Board (for short the KSEB.) for damages on account of his death, alleging that the K S E B. was negligent in maintaining the electric line under their management on the route concerned. The trial court accepted the case and gave a decree for Rs. 75,000/-with interest and costs. The KSEB., aggrieved by the aforesaid decree, has filed this appeal.

2. The plaint averments show that Krishnan Nair was a man of good health, doing business in textiles, provisions and general goods, besides running a rice mill, and was earning fairly good income with which the members of his family were getting on well and his five c