As a child, Joseph grew up listening to the endless discussions on litigations involving his father, banker Francis, and his Modern Relief Bank of Kochi.
Sixty-seven years after the bank broke and the death of banker Francis and most of his 782 creditors, the legal battle is far from over.
Recently, the First Additional Subcourt, Ernakulam, came out with a newspaper advertisement inviting the creditors to come forward to claim what is due to them. The court had also authorised P.K. Raghavan, the present official receiver in the case, to reach out to the creditors or their legal heirs.
“Around 20 heirs of some of the creditors had turned up. The creditors can personally appear before the receiver or send their bank account numbers with relevant details to prove their claim and identity,” says Mr. Raghavan, also a lawyer.
According to Manual Thomas, one of the lawyers who had represented Mr. Joseph in the court, the banker had reportedly transferred most of the properties in the name of a woman during the period of bankruptcy.
Initially, the legal battle was between the banker and the creditors. Later, the woman and the creditors fought it out. After the death of the banker and the woman, their legal heirs and the creditors took up the fight, he says.
All that the deceased banker owed his creditors was around ₹4 lakh.
“The amount may sound paltry now. But it was a fortune during those days. A major portion of the holdings owned by the banker near National Highway 66 was auctioned off. Several orders passed during the course of the litigation were challenged in various higher courts,” says Mr. Thomas.
“Most of the lawyers who initially conducted the case passed away during the past decades. I had unsuccessfully tried to thrash out a negotiated settlement in the case. Had it fructified, it would have benefited all those concerned,” he says.
Nearly seven decades after his father was declared an insolvent and a major chunk of his properties auctioned off to repay the debtors, Mr. Joseph is continuing the legal battle as the legal heir of his father to claim whatever little is left of his ancestral fortune.
Mr. Joseph, who lived out of the family fortune, never bothered about getting educated or employed. Now a septuagenarian, he’s living a menial life. “I wish the litigations will soon be over and I get a share of my ancestral property,” he says.
No one knows how long it may take for the litigation to be over. Yet, Mr. Joseph is surviving on the hope that his better days will arrive soon.
