4. Procedure in case of death of one of several defendants or of sole defendant- (1) one of two or more defendants dies and the right to sue does not survive against the surviving defendant or defendants alone, or a sole defendant or sole surviving defendant dies and the right to sue survives, the Court, on an application made in that behalf, shall cause the legal representative of the deceased defendant to be made a party and shall proceed with the suit. (2) Any person so made a party may make any defence appropriate to his character as legal representative of the deceased defendant”. Salmond on Jurisprudence has succinctly stated the rights of a dead man vesting in his legal representative. (12th edition at page-120) : rights which a dead man thus leaves behind “The him vest in his representative. They pass to some person whom the dead man, or the law on his behalf, has appointed to represent him in the world of the living. This representative bears the person of the deceased, and therefore has vested in him all the inheritable rights, and has imposed upon him all the inheritable liabilities of the deceased. Inheritance is in some sort a legal and fictitious continuation of the personality of the dead man, for the representative is in some sort identified by the law with him whom he represents. The rights which the dead man can no longer own or exercise in propria persona, and the obligations which he can no longer in propria persona fulfil, he owns, exercises, and fulfils in the person of a living substitute. To this extent, and in this fashion, it may be said that the legal personality of a man survives his natural personality, until, his obligations being duly performed, and his property duly disposed of, his representation among the living is no longer called for.” From the decisions cited earlier, it is pellucid that sub-rule (2) of Rule 4 of Order 22 authorizes the legal representative of a deceased defendant to file an additional written statement raising all pleas which the deceased-defendant had or could have raised except those which were personal to the deceased-defendant or
4. Procedure in case of death of one of several defendants or of sole defendant- (1) one of two or more defendants dies and the right to sue does not survive against the surviving defendant or defendants alone, or a sole defendant or sole surviving defendant dies and the right to sue survives, the Court, on an application made in that behalf, shall cause the legal representative of the deceased defendant to be made a party and shall proceed with the suit. (2) Any person so made a party may make any defence appropriate to his character as legal representative of the deceased defendant”. Salmond on Jurisprudence has succinctly stated the rights of a dead man vesting in his legal representative. (12th edition at page-120) : “The rights which a dead man thus leaves behind him vest in his representative. They pass to some person whom the dead man, or the law on his behalf, has appointed to represent him in the world of the living. This representative bears the person of the deceased, and therefore has vested in him all the inheritable rights, and has imposed upon him all the inheritable liabilities of the deceased. Inheritance is in some sort a legal and fictitious continuation of the personality of the dead man, for the representative is in some sort identified by the law with him whom he represents. The rights which the dead man can no longer own or exercise in propria persona, and the obligations which he can no longer in propria persona fulfil, he owns, exercises, and fulfils in the person of a living substitute. To this extent, and in this fashion, it may be said that the legal personality of a man survives his natural personality, until, his obligations being duly performed, and his property duly disposed of, his representation among the living is no longer called for.” From the decisions cited earlier, it is pellucid that sub-rule (2) of Rule 4 of Order 22 authorizes the legal representative of a deceased defendant to file an additional written statement raising all pleas which the deceased-defendant had or could have raised except those which were personal to the deceased-defendant or
Civil,%20Criminal%20and%20other%20laws-FEB_2016.docx