Kumaraswami Sastri, J.

1. Plaintiff is the appellant. The plaintiffs father had dealings with defendants 1 to 4 who are Mahomedan merchants who carried on business in 1914 and 1915 in Colombo. Defendants 1, 2 and 4 by their agents and defendant 3 personally executed a bond in favour of the plaintiffs father for Rs. 75,000 on the 29th September 1914 and also created a sub-mortgage document executed in their favour by third persons. The plaintiffs father filed suit No. 4186 of 1915 in the District Court of Colombo on the 25th May 1915 and obtained an ex-parte decree on the 18th June 1915 which is filed as Ex. A in this case. The decree states that the defendants did not appear either in person or by proctor or by counsel although duly served with summons. The property which was sub-mortgaged was sold in execution of the 10th January 1916 and was purchased by the plaintiff for a sum of Rs. 100 and finding that he could not obtain anything more by execution in the Colombo Court, the plaintiff (his father having died meanwhile) filed a suit in the Sub-Court of Tanjore on the foreign judgment and prayed for a decree for Rs. 56,765-4-11 the balance due under the judgment and decree