1Defendant is the appellant. Suit was for damages and short delivery of goods.

2 Plaintiff is a Shipping Company engaged in the carriage of goods by sea. In its vessel S. S. Vishwa Raksha, it brought among other cargo, a consignment of steel sheets to the Port of Cochin for the Cochin Refineries Ltd. The vessel arrived at Cochin on 11-10-1967. The defendant was engaged as stevedores for discharge of the said cargo. Discharge operation was completed on 18-10-1967. There were 217 bundles of steel sheets for discharge. The mode of discharge was that each bundle would be tied to a wire sling, lifted from the hatch and discharged to the lighter moored by the side of the ship. For the above purpose, the wire sling with a circumference of 13/4" was used. In the course of discharge of the last bundle to the lighter the sling broke and the bundle fell into the lighter. As a result of the impact, the bottom of the lighter gave way and 22 bundles of steel sheets were irrecoverably lost under water. The salvage operation conducted by Port Authorities did not succeed.

3 The plaintiff alleged that the cargo was lost due to the negligence of the defendant in that it used wire sling of the circumfer

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