The Importance Of 'Clean Hands' In Applications For Injunctive Relief

• Published date: 15 December 2025
• Law Firm: Dillon Eustace
• Author: Conal Keane, Niall Dodd and Alan Quigley

In a recent decision of the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal (which can be found here), the central importance of a party having clean hands when seeking interim injunctive relief was discussed and reaffirmed.

The judgment was made following an appeal by Al Jomaih Power Limited and Denham Investment Ltd, minority shareholders in KES Power Limited (the largest stakeholder in K-Electric, Pakistan's largest energy company), against a decision of the Grand Court (Asif J) refusing to grant interim injunctive relief (a summary of that decision and the background to the dispute can be found here. That relief sought, amongst other things, to prevent changes being made on the Board of K-Electric by IGCF SPV 21 Limited (the majority shareholder of KES Power) in accordance with its contractual rights under a shareholders' agreement.

In its decision, the Grand Court had stated unequivocally that

• "a contract breaker cannot at the same time seek an injunction to enforce performance of the contract by his counterparty – that is the antithesis of doing equity".
• "[t]he Plaintiffs are deliberate contract breakers" and came to the court "with unclean hands disentitling them to the equitable relief that they seek".
• The English decision of Chappell v. Times Newspapers Ltd¹, whereby a party's unclean hands in seeking injunctive relief to enforce a contract it has itself broken is alone a basis for dismissing an injunction application, should be followed in Cayman.

Along with a finding of unclean hands, the Grand...