1. Thefacts leading to the civil miscellaneous appeal are as under:

The appellant who is the endorsed consignee/purchaser of 245 bags of wheat (120 + 125) sent from Hardol to Katpadi under railway receipts Exs.B-1 and B-2. On arrival of the goods at the destination, it was found that a portion of the consignment had been damaged in respect of which the respondent, the destination railway, issued joint survey report Ex.A.-1 stating that 120 bags kept for OD were found wet, damaged, discolored, disfigured , fungus attacked and emitting bad smell and the damage was assessed at Rs.15,744. It is not necessary to refer to the umber of bags and the percentage of assessment as the total amount claimed has already been given. The goods were sent on 24.8.1990 from Hardol. The goods reached the destination on 13.12.1990 as seen from the D message, Ex.B-3, issued by the Chief Goods Supervisor, Katpadi. According to the appellant, the damage was caused due to the negligence and misconduct on the part of the railway servants when the consignment was in transit and in their custody and the respondent was liable to compensate the loss as insurer in as much as they had not taken reasonab