RAMAMURTI, J. :- This appeal arises out of a suit, O.S. No. 176 of 1954, Sub Court, Tiruchirapalli, filed by the first respondent herein, for partition and separate possession of his one-ninth share, after taking an account of the properties, cash, business assets, bank deposits, jewellery, moveables etc. The plaintiff's suit has been substantially decreed as prayed for by him, and the plaintiff's father, the first defendant in the suit, the latter's wife, the 2nd defendant, and their son (the plaintiff's step brother), the third defendant, are the appellants in the present appeal. In order to appreciate the relationship between the parties, the following genealogical tree is set out :

The case of the plaintiff, who is the son of the first defendant through his first wife is that after the death of the plaintiff's grandfather, Guna Jeer Bhagavathar in 1901 his four' sons, i.e., the plaintiff's father and the plaintiff's three uncles, were under the guardianship and protection of their mother, Ahilandammal, that they have been carrying on a business in javuli to start with in a small scale, that with the aid of such meagre nucleus as existed and by joint labour and exertion,