Enforcement of Contracts by Injunctions

• Author: Jeffrey Berryman
• Pages: 426-437

426

CHAPTER 15

ENFORCEMENT OF

CONTRACTS BY

INJUNCTIONS

A. INTRODUCTION

We have already seen how injunctions can be used to enforce contrac-

tual terms; both in the preceding chapter and in discussion of inter-

locutory injunctions in Chapter 2. In this chapter we focus on the use

of injunctions to enforce negative stipulations contained within con-

tracts outside the area of employment law.

A contract is normally considered to be an expression of positive

conduct obligating the parties to perform the specif‌ic promises under-

taken. One express promise could be the promise not to undertake a

particular activity — an agreement not to open up in competition with

the promisee, for example. However, an express promise can also infer

a promise to undertake a particular task to the exclusion of all other

tasks, such as purchasing exclusively from the other contracting party.

In both situations, courts have shown a willingness to grant injunc-

tive relief. From early on, courts have accepted that it was easier to

restrain them f rom doing something t han to order a person to carry out

a particular act, and thus injunctions were routinely granted. However,

courts would not allow injunctions to become a roundabout way to ef-

fect specif‌ic performance. Courts today are still mindful of this restric-

tion, but are more willing to gra nt an injunction, preferring to focu s on

the substance of the dispute and on whether awarding an injunction

will really violate some other discretionary concern.