Cases - Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society v Ricketts
Record details
- Name
- Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society v Ricketts
- Date
- [1993]
- Citation
- 1 WLR 1545
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Rights of light
- Summary
-
In this case, which concerned allegations of mortgage fraud by the plaintiff building society against the defendants, the Court of Appeal set out a number of principles relevant to undertakings in damages. These included the following:
- Except in exceptional cases, an undertaking in damages is the price which the person asking for an interim injunction has to pay for its grant. The court cannot compel an applicant to give an undertaking but it can refuse to grant an injunction unless he does.
- The undertaking does not create a cause of action. It does, however, enable the party who is subject to the interim injunction to apply to the court for compensation if it is subsequently established that the interim injunction should not have been granted.
- In a case where it is later decided that the injunction should not have been granted, the undertaking is likely to be enforced, although the court retains a discretion not to do so.
- The time at which the court should determine whether or not the interim injunction should have been granted will vary from case to case. Where (as happens in many cases) the injunction remains in force until the trial, the question of the propriety of its original grant and the enforcement of the undertaking will not be considered before the conclusion of the trial.
- The damages recoverable by enforcement of the undertaking will generally be awarded on a similar basis to damages awarded for breach of contract.