Sarath Godagampala vs W.K.Peter Fernando – SC APPEAL 98/2007-2016

In the case between 1A, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th defendant-petitioner-appellants (including associated parties such as S. Peter and others) and W.K. Peter Fernando (with additional named defendants/respondents), the central legal issue concerned whether the allocation of shares in a partition action had been correctly determined under Section 25 of the Partition Law. The court held that the District Judge erred in allotting only 1/12 share un-allotted when the evidence demonstrated that 5/12 shares remained unaccounted for, thus constituting a statutory violation. It was further determined that the Court of Appeal’s refusal to invoke its revisionary jurisdiction resulted in a miscarriage of justice. The decision reaffirmed the principle that, in partition actions, the trial judge must th