Irish Shell Ltd v Elm Motors Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1984
• Date: 01 January 1984
• Docket Number: [1982 No. 3465P]
• Court: Supreme Court

(H.C., S.C.)

Irish Shell Ltd

and

Elm Motors Ltd

Balance of convenience - Contract - Terms - Enforcement - Restraint of trade - Covenant in lease -Covenant in positive form - Solus agreement with oil company - Lessor's remedy for breach of covenant - Mandatory and prohibitory injunctions - Interlocutory relief.

The defendants carried on a garage and petrol service business and the plaintiffs, an oil company, sold petroleum products. In the year 1969 the defendants bought a six-acre plot beside a public road and adjoining an acre plot which belonged to the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs had obtained planning permission for the development of their plot as a petrol and service station. The defendants' application for a similar permission for their plot was refused; they appealed against the refusal but withdrew the appeal after they had obtained the plaintiffs' agreement to grant the defendants a lease of the plaintiffs' plot. Subsequently, the defendants applied for and, on the 24 July, 1970, obtained planning permission to develop the combined plots as a petrol and service station. By a lease dated the 30 October, 1973, the plaintiffs demised their plot to the defendants for a term of 42 years. The lease contained...