Basic concepts in CPC- Legal representative and mesne profits

Legal representative. S 2(11) of CPC

Legal representative means a person who in law represents the estate of a deceased person, and includes any person who intermeddles with the estate of deceased. Thus a universal legatee under a will executed by deceased is his legal representative. However, a mere trespasser is not a legal representative as he does not intermeddles with the estate with the intention of representing the estate.

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Mesne profits S 2(12) of CPC

Mesne profits of property means those profits which the person in wrongful possession of such property actually received,or might with ordinary dilligence have received therefrom together with interest on such profits. The expression does not however include profits due to improvement made by person in wrongful possession.

The object of awarding a decree for mesne profits is to compensate the person entitled to be in possession for having kept out of possession and thus deprived of the property.Hence only a person who is entitled to actual possession can claim mesne profits. The true nature of mesne proftis is not what plaintiff has lost,but what defendant has gained by his wrongful possession,or what he might

reasonably have gained by such possession.

 Burden of proving amount of mesne profits actually received is on the person who has received them,while burden of proving the amount of profits which might have been received is on the person claiming them.

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