JAGAT NARAYAN, C. J.

( 1 ) THIS is an appeal by the plaintiff against a decree of the Senior Civil Judge, udaipur, dismissing his suit for recovery of money.

( 2 ) THE plaintiff was a contractor whose tender for the construction of buildings for the Collectorate and other offices at Bhilwara was accepted on behalf of the State. The work was completed on 28-4-1955. It appears that there was some dispute between the contractor and the Executive Engineer incharge of the work as to the payment to which the former was entitled. On 27-12-1955 the plaintiff wrote a letter (Ex. 3) to the Executive Engineer which runs as follows:--

"i regret I cannot sign the bill in full and final settlement of all my dues, for which I have already claimed. I request you to please pay me the dues as billed by you as an advance in Hand Receipt on running bill. This may kindly be done early so that I may not waste my time here. "

( 3 ) THE final bill (Ex. A-2) was prepared and payment was made on it on 10-21956. The receipt given by the contractor on this final bill runs as follows:-

"received Rs. 42261/15/6 and deposited Rs. 279/8/6 of stones dues and rs. 3169/-as security deposit and balance of Ru