1. These five second appeals arise out of five different suits filed by the respective appellants, in the Court of the Subordinate Judge, Upper Assam District it Jorhat, claiming compensation for the loss sustained by them in consequence of the damage caused to their goods, which they consigned to the respondent company for carriage from Jagannathghat, Calcutta to the Neamatighat near Jorhat. As all the suits related to goods carried by one steamer by the respondent company and the damage to the goods occurred at the same time, and as, apparently, common questions of law and fact were involved in the disposal of the suits, they were tried together by the learned Subordinate Judge and disposed of by a common judgment, by which the learned Subordinate judge decreed each of the suits to a substantial extent.

2. The resp