Rigby J:

This is an appeal from a decision of Mr. Au Ah Wah, the then President of the Sessions Court, dismissing the plaintiff's claim against the defendant for damages for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff at the hands of the defendant.

The facts are relatively simple. An angry exchange of words, culminating in a fight, took place between the plaintiff and the defendant in front of the plaintiff's premises at Gurney Drive on the afternoon of the 10 October 1959. At some stage in the fight one Mat Yusi bin Mawal, a nephew of the defendant, intervened on his behalf, and at some stage, whether in the course of the actual fight between the plaintiff and the, defendant, or after that fight had actually terminated, Mat Yusi himself assaulted the plaintiff. The plaintiff said in evidence that the defendant struck him with a piece of iron over the right eye. The plaintiff was admitted to hospital and, upon examination, he was found to have a big linear cut on the right eye-brow. His nose was swollen and he was bleeding from it. An X-ray examination disclosed a fracture of the nasal bone. The medical report also shows, incidentally, that he was found to be suffering f