KRISHNA IYER, J. :- The parties to these appeals invite the Court to evaluate life, which is priceless, by the negative device of assessing the loss inflicted by death on those who lived on the deceased's longevity. In this mundane world, even the irreparable can be repaired somewhat by money and the law computes compensation for loss of life as "a hard matter of pounds, shillings and pence", based not on "sentimental damage, bereavement or pain or suffering" but on "a reasonable expectation of pecuniary benefit as of right or otherwise, from the continuance of the life".

2. A stage carriage, belonging to the 1st defendant-company, was plying, with lethal rashness, on the Vypeen-Pallipuram road on the ill-starred day, the 12th December, 1959. This lovely island has but rugged roads and the working-class denizens, who make a livelihood by employment outside the island, depend largely on buses for their daily journeys. Three such workmen by name Ande Chouro, Joseph Sylvian and Pathrose Raphael, all employed in Volkart Bros., were on their way to their work-place in the morning that day. According to the plaintiffs, the 1st defendant's overloaded bus, propelled recklessly by i