When damages are an inadequate remedy, the nonbreaching party may pursue
the equitable remedy of specific performance.
To determine whether specific performance is adequate, the court will consider a variety of factors, including:
i) The difficulty of proving damages with reasonable certainty;
ii) Hardship to the defendant;
iii) Balance of the equities;
iv) The wishes and understandings of the parties;
v) Practicality of enforcement; and
vi) Mutuality of the agreement.
exam note: specific performance be aware of fact patterns involving
land or other unique goods, when damages are more obviously insufficient to put the nonbreaching party in as good a position as the party would have been without the breach.
Contracts involving the transfer of an interest in real property may be enforced by an order of
specific performance because every parcel of real property is considered unique.
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Specific performance may be granted to the buyer when the goods are
are or unique or in other circumstances, such as for breach of a requirements contract when no other convenient supplier is available.
Even if the remedy of damages is inadequate, specific performance will not be granted when the court
cannot supervise enforcement.
- Thus, courts rarely grant specific enforcement of contracts for personal services.
Equitable defenses, such as laches (prejudicial delay in bringing the action) or unclean hands (when the nonbreaching party is guilty of some wrongdoing in the transaction at issue) may be raised by the
breaching party
A party may also seek an injunction against the breaching party to
enforce the contract