Rupasinghe Arachchilage Gunapala Perera v. Gallage Edmund Perera – CA 476/2006/LA-2018

In Gallage Edmund Perera and Hewabamuwitage Gimarahamy (as Power of Attorney holders for Gallage Mahinda Perera) v. Rupasinghe Arachchilage Ranjani Perera and others, the court examined whether denial of special leave to the defendant under section 48(4)(a)(iv) of the Partition Law was warranted following non-appearance at trial allegedly due to mental unsoundness. It was determined that the trial was misclassified as inter partes, as the attorney for the defendant had unambiguously stated lack of instructions and non-appearance. Nevertheless, the defendant’s failure to establish a prima facie claim to the disputed portion of Lot 3B led to the dismissal of the appeal. This holding relied on analysis of Andiappa Chettier v. Sanmugam Chettier and Malwatta v. Gunasekera, and reinforced the pr