This is an appeal by the plaintiff against the decree of the Subordinate Judge of South Malabar at Calicut dismissing his suit on a preliminary point namely that a proper statutory notice under section 80 of the Civil Procedure Code has not been given by the plaintiff before the suit was instituted. There are four defendants to the suit. The first is the South Indian Railway. The second is the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway. The third is the Great Indian Peninsular Railway and the fourth is the Governor-General in Council, New Delhi. The plaintiff’s case was that he despatched from Calicut to self at Kalapipal, a station in the G.I.P. Railway, 34 bags of dry coconuts, 11 bags of moist coconuts and 77 bags of copra balls by invoice dated 17th July, 1944. He charged the railway system with wilful default and negligence and misconduct as the goods were wrongfully diverted and otherwise unduly delayed in the course of transit. It was only after continued enquiries regarding the delay at the other end that the goods were traced and finally sent to the destination in October, 1944. The goods had become deteriorated and became unmarketable. The District Commercial Inspect