Lord Devlin:

The judgment of the Lords of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council was delivered by,

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Court of Appeal at Kuala Lumpur setting aside an order of the High Court that the defendants, the present respondents, should pay the plaintiff, the present appellant, the sum of $31,112.06 in respect of dishonoured cheques drawn by the defendants and payable to the plaintiff.

The plaintiff and the defendants carry on business at Kuala Lumpur, the one as a wholesale dealer in textiles and the other as a manufacturer of rubber shoes. Their dealings together, which they have had since 1954, appear to have been financial rather than commercial and arose, perhaps, from the fact that the defendants' cashier was the plaintiff's nephew. In this action the plaintiff is suing the defendants on sixteen cheques drawn by the defendants in February and March 1958, in favour of the plaintiff and on presentation dishonoured.

The cheques were given to the plaintiff in the course of certain transactions whose nature it is necessary to investigate and determine. The investigation is made difficult by the fact that at the trial neither side told