Because equity intervenes only where the common law cannot do justice, everything in this chapter turns on discretion and its limits. It begins with the nature of the remedy and the requirements a claimant must meet, including why damages are presumed inadequate for land but rarely for ordinary commercial goods, before considering which contracts are unsuitable for enforcement — personal service and building contracts chief among them. It then works through the equitable bars that can defeat a claim, from unclean hands and laches to hardship and misrepresentation, and explains the equitable interest a buyer acquires under a specifically enforceable land contract, with its significance on the seller's insolvency. The chapter closes with related orders — abatement of the price, damages in addition or in substitution — and the consequences of disobeying the court's order.
