1941 Present: Soertsz J.

PERERA v. WICKREMARATNE.

97-C. R. Kandy, 28,950.

Prescription-Acknowledgment of debt-Promise to pay-Ordinance No. 22 of 1871 (Cap. 55). S. 12.

Where the defendant wrote to the plaintiff as follows:-

I wish to sell it (a property) as early as possible and also to settle your account",-

Held, that the writing constituted an acknowledgment of a debt from which a promise to pay the debt could reasonably be inferred.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Commissioner of Requests, Kandy.

C. E. S. Perera (with him S. W. Jayasuriya), for the defendant, appellant.

G. P. J. Kurukulasuriya (with him S. P. C. Fernando), for the plaintiff, respondent.

Cur. adv. vult.

August 8, 1941. SOERTSZ J.

The sole question that arises on this appeal is whether the learned Commissioner of Requests took a correct view of the document P I when he held that it amounted to an acknowledgment of a debt which had become statute barred, and so gave the plaintiff, by virtue of section 12 of the Prescription Ordinance, the right to recover that debt.

P 1 is in these terms so far as the relevant part of it is concerned:

"Mr. D. R. de Silva w