Suit Against A Firm Is A Suit Against All Persons Who Were Its Partners When Cause Of Action Occured
Case: C.S Company & Ors v. Kerala State Electricity Board & Anr.
Coram: Justice P.B. Suresh Kumar and Justice C.S. Sudha
Case No.: AS NO. 86 OF 2003
Court Observation: “When a suit is instituted by or against a firm it is in reality a suit by or against all the partners of the firm. The firm name stands for all those persons who were its partners at the time of the accruing of the cause of action. In other words, the effect of using the name of the firm is to bring all the partners before the court. This enabling provision contained in Rule 1 of Order XXX does not, however, do away with the traditional method of bringing a suit by or against the partners individually.”
“A firm is a compendious collective name for the individual members who constitute the firm. The Code, however, does not treat the firm as a juristic person. It only confers a privilege on the individuals constituting the firm to sue or be sued in the name of the firm.”
“A decree passed against a Firm is binding on all persons who were partners on the day when the cause of action accrued. That being the position, at best, the consequence of a new person coming in would only mean that he would not be entitled to the fruits of the decree if any obtained by the persons who were partners at the time of the accrual of the cause of action,”
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