JUDGMENT :

K.P. Balanarayana Marar, J.

Plaintiffs are the appellants. First plaintiff, his wife Pennamma and their three children were traveling from Thiruvananthapuram to Kottayam by Madras Mail on 27-1-1981. After the train stopped at Kottayam railway station, 1st plaintiff and two of the children alighted. While Pennamma was getting down from the compartment holding the third child in hand the train started moving as a result of which she and the child fell down. Her mutilated body was removed from under the train and by that time she had breathed her last. The child was seriously injured and succumbed to the injuries on the way to the hospital. First plaintiff in his individual capacity and as the next friend of the two children filed Original Petition 8/1982 before Sub-Court, Kottayam as an indigent person claiming an amount of Rs. 55,000/- as compensation. It is alleged in the petition which was subsequently converted into a suit and numbered as O.S. 319/1983 that the train suddenly moved forward without any signal or warning and as a result of the jerking Pennamma and the child fell into the track and Pennamma was run over by the train and her body was cut into pieces. The chi