T. Sami Aiyangar vs V. Srinivasa Aiyangar and Others

In the deed of partnership itself there is no term expressly fixed for the duration of partnership, but the Subordinate Judge has held that as the

deed contained a stipulation that after the plaintiff''s death his nephew should act in his stead, the parties must be considered to have agreed to

carry on the partnership during the life-time of the plaintiff, and that, therefore, the partnership was entered into for a fixed term under the Indian

Contract Act. We are unable to agree with the lower Court. In Cox v. Willoughby (1880) 13 Ch. D. 863; 49 L.J. Ch. 237; 28 W.R. 503; 42 L.T.

125 it was held that a provision that on the decease of one of the partners the surviving partner should pay his executors a certain sum of money is

inconsistent with a partnership at will. Similarly in Cuffe v. Murtagh 17 Ir. L.R. 411 it was decided that a provision that it should be competent to a

partner to nominate and appoint any male person to take his share in the partnership at his decease and that every such person should become and

be accepted as a partner in respect of his share whom he should so present was held imported into the terms of a partnership at will springing out

of a previous one which was for a fixed period of seven years and had expired before the testator''s death. The partnership in the case before us is

not stated to be for a fixed period and the provision referred to is not inconsistent with a partnership at will. We, therefore, set aside the

Subordinate Judge''s decision on this point.