Karunawathie vs. Piyasena & Others – sllr 2011 volume 1 page 171

In the case between the 20th Defendant/Appellant and respondents including the 15th/16A and 2nd respondents, the court addressed the issue of whether substitution of deceased parties could be effected after their deaths once the record became defective prior to delivery of orders or judgment. The court held that failure to substitute legal representatives of deceased parties resulted in the record being fatally defective, rendering both the District Court’s Final Order and the High Court’s Judgment null, and that Section 760A of the Civil Procedure Code and Rule 38 of the Supreme Court Rules were inapplicable under these circumstances. The principle reaffirmed is that legal proceedings are a nullity if parties die without substitution before the substantive decision, as informed by relevan