John Wallis, C.J.

1. This is an appeal from the judgment of Mr. Justice Kumaraswami Sastri in a suit brought by the plaintiff who was the indorsee for value of two railway receipts, to make the Railway Company liable for misdelivery. The facts were, that the goods in question were consigned by one Gurunatham to his own order to the Madras Harbour station of the defendant railway. Gurunatham had pledged the railway receipts to the Bank of Madras, and the Bank of Madras were the persons entitled to delivery of the goods. It was intended that one Swaminatha Reddi should pay the Bank and get the railway receipts assigned to him and then take delivery of the goods. He managed, however, to get possession of the goods from the Railway Company, without production of the railway receipts and before he had paid the Bank. This was apparently because, for many years, large consignments of cotton had been consigned by Gurunatham in this way and had been duly taken delivery of by Swaminatha Reddi. Two or three days afterwards, Swaminatha Reddi paid the Bank of Madras and obtained the railway receipts. When that happened, in our opinion, the contract of carriage by the Railway Company was