DR. DATE-BAH JSC:
The issues raised by this appeal are principally those of law, although there are also some issues of fact. The principal legal issue raised is: when may the remedy of specific performance, which is usually available in relation to contracts for the purchase of land, be withheld from a purchaser of land? The settled conventional position of the law is that, upon breach of a contract for the sale of land, the primary remedy available to the innocent party is specific performance, although this is a discretionary equitable remedy. The facts of this case require this court to inquire into the circumstances in which this settled view of the law will be departed from. Courts in common law countries have relied on a limited range of grounds in the exceptional cases where the remedy of specific performance has been denied to a purchaser of land. The judgments in the Court of Appeal in this case raise the issue whether any of these grounds is applicable on the facts here.
The …