Present  : Wood Renton C.J. and Shaw J.   1915.

SIRIATTU v. RAN MENIKA.

102-D. C. Kurunegala, 5,342.

Vendor and purchaser-Land sold free from encumbrances-Purchaser unable to obtain possession owing to existence of a usufructuary mortgage-Rescission of sale.

Defendants sold to plaintiffs a land, covenanting that it was free from all encumbrances; but in point of fact it was subject to a usufructuary mortgage, and the plaintiffs were unable to obtain physical possession.

Held (over-ruling the objection that the existence of such an encumbrance was not a defect in the thing sold, and constituted no ground for the rescission of the sale, but merely entitled the purchaser, on paying off the mortgage, to recover the amount and incidental expenses as compensation from his vender), that the plaintiffs were entitled to a rescission of the sale.

THE facts appear from the judgment.

A. St. V. Jayewardene, for the defendants, appellants.

No appearance for the plaintiffs, respondents.

Cur. adv. vult.

June 7, 1915. WOOD RENTON C.J.-

This case raises an interesting point of law. The defendants sold to the plaintiffs the field described in the pla