(1886) 31 Ch.D. 354 at 369.
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INJUNCTIONS
PERPETUAL INJUNCTION
Is an order of injunction issued after the court has heard both parties in the normal
course of trial and the plaintiff has successfully established his right and proved actual
or threatened infringement of it by the defendant. It settles the issue once and for all.
Perpetual injunction does not necessarily have the effect of enduring for ever. The court
in issuing perpetual injunction can limit its operation to a particular period. For a party
can be restrained from entering into any competition with his former employer within a
defined locality and for a limited period.
Principles
Damages an insufficient remedy
According
to Lindley L.J.
in London and Blackwell Rly v. Cross1
"The very first principle of injunction law is that prima facie you do not obtain injunctions to
restrain actionable wrongs for which damages are the proper remedy.
So where the injury can be adequately compensated by money, injunction will not be
granted; this may arise in a situation where the acts complained of had already been
executed and there is no intention of repeating it. This principle is not applied strictly.
For where damages would be adequate but the award of it will be a useless remedy as
where the defendant is a pauper, the court will issue an order of injunction. The party has
a right to the performance of the contract and not merely to monetary compensation,
therefore an injunction will issue to restrain breaches of negative contracts. Plaintiff must
establish a right cognisable in equity or at law as a condition precedent to the award of
injunction.
Protection of a right
It is a fundamental rule that the court will only grant an injunction at the suit of a
private individual to support a right. The plaintiff should have some property, right, or
interest in the subject matter of his complaint. Thus in Day v. Brownrigg (1878) 10 Ch.D.
29 the court refused an order of injunction to prevent the defendant from calling his
[1979] Q.B. 276. See also the cases not