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Issues: (i) whether a person in prior possession, though not the true owner, can recover possession from a subsequent trespasser even after an interval in which the true owner had possession; (ii) whether a plea based on a subsequent title acquired after the institution of the suit could be entertained without being pleaded or tried; (iii) whether the plaintiff was entitled to mesne profits and compensation for waste, and whether such relief could exceed the rough estimate stated in the plaint.
Issue (i): whether a person in prior possession, though not the true owner, can recover possession from a subsequent trespasser even after an interval in which the true owner had possession.
Analysis: Possession was treated as a root of title against all except the true owner. An earlier possessor was held to have a better possessory title than a later intruder, and the fact that the true owner may have re-entered in between did not extinguish that earlier possessory title as against a later trespasser. The Court applied the principle that prior possession continues to confer a recoverable title until barred by limitation, and accepted the plaintiff's evidence that the alleged eviction by the Government was only from the adjacent 160 acres and not from the suit land.
Conclusion: The plaintiff was entitled to recover possession from the 1st defendant.
Issue (ii): whether a plea based on a subsequent title acquired after the institution of the suit could be entertained without being pleaded or tried.
Analysis: A court may notice subsequent events only where they are properly pleaded and issues are joined, and where the opposite party is not prejudiced. The alleged later lease in favour of the 1st defendant was not part of the original pleadings, no issue was joined on it, and the attempt to introduce it at the appellate stage would have caused serious prejudice to the plaintiff.
Conclusion: The subsequent-title plea was not entertainable and did not defeat the plaintiff's claim.
Issue (iii): whether the plaintiff was entitled to mesne profits and compensation for waste, and whether such relief could exceed the rough estimate stated in the plaint.
Analysis: Mesne profits were treated as matters for judicial assessment on the evidence, not as fixed by the plaint estimate. The Court also held that compensation for waste could be awarded on the same footing where the plaintiff had no access to the property and the defendant was in wrongful possession. The defendants having withheld relevant accounts and the evidence supporting destruction of improvements being accepted, the awards for past and future mesne profits and for waste were upheld.
Conclusion: The plaintiff was entitled to mesne profits and compensation for waste, and the relief could be assessed beyond the approximate amount stated in the plaint.
Final Conclusion: The decree was expanded in favour of the plaintiff for possession of the whole suit property, mesne profits, compensation for waste, future inquiry into mesne profits, and costs.
Ratio Decidendi: Prior possession gives a legally enforceable title against all but the true owner, and a later trespasser cannot defeat it by relying on an unpleaded subsequent title or by insisting that the plaintiff's recovery is limited to the amount roughly estimated in the plaint for mesne profits or waste.
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