Madhavan Nair, J.

1. The 1st plaintiff is the appellant. This appeal arises out of a suit instituted by the plaintiffs to recover from the 3rd defendant personally and from defendants 1 and 2 out of the family properties Rs. 17,358 with subsequent interest at 12 per cent, per annum or in the alternative to recover from all the defendants 14/20th of the said amount with interest by way of contribution in respect of a decree debt discharged by the plaintiffs in execution of the decree in Appeal No. 296 of 1917 on the file of the High Court (see Ex. F). In the plaint the share of the debt claimed by way of contribution is 17/20, but in the argument the claim was altered to 14/20 accepting the contention of the defendants.

2. S.A. Subrahmanya Chetty and S.N. Subrahmanya Chetty, the 3rd defendant in the suit, sons of two brothers, started a money-lending firm at Singapore under the name and style of S.N.A. with a capital of more than six lakhs of dollars. The agents of the firm from 1901 to 1908 were successively Avadiappa Chetty and Jayangondan. They, as well as S.A. Subrahmanya Chetty, one of the partners, are now dead. Plaintiffs 1 and 2 in the present suit are the son and the