THAILAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Chusert Supasitthumrong, John Frangos, Alongkorn Tongmee and Eric Meyer, Tilleke & Gibbins
6. Injunctive Relief 6.1 Circumstances of Injunctive Relief Under Thai law, injunctive relief is available to a party facing urgent circumstances, such as in situations where if the plaintiff had to wait for a court hearing, it might be too late to provide effective protection, potentially causing damage to the plaintiff and mak- ing it difficult to enforce a judgment in its favour if it wins the case. A common example of this would be when an appli- cant requests the seizure or freezing of a respondent’s assets to ensure that those assets are not disposed of by the respondent during ongoing court proceedings. In such a case, the applicant must demonstrate that the respondent is going to wilfully remove all or part of the property in dispute from the court’s jurisdic- tion, or is going to sell or dispose of the property for the purpose of avoiding enforcement of any execution order which may be issued against the respondent. Another example would be when an applicant requests that the court order a respondent to do something or to refrain from doing something. In such a case, the applicant must demonstrate that the respondent is going to repeat or continue committing the unlawful act or breach of contract and the applicant will con- tinue suffering damages due to the respondent’s act. 6.2 Arrangements for Obtaining Urgent Injunctive Relief If a situation requires immediate remedy, a party may seek urgent injunctive relief. This applies to situations in which the delay of injunctive relief would cause damage to the applicant, such as when the respond- ent is about to transfer or dispose of assets. If the assets are not seized promptly, the respondent may not have any remaining assets for the applicant to enforce the judgment against. A request for urgent injunctive relief must be submitted alongside a request for ordinary injunctive relief, and the court will expedite its consideration. In practice, when the applicant files a request for urgent injunctive relief, the court will conduct a hear- ing on the same day. The hearing may involve tes- timony from the applicant’s witnesses or evidence
summoned by the court, or it may rely solely on the applicant’s statement. 6.3 Availability of Injunctive Relief on an Ex Parte Basis In considering a request for urgent injunctive relief, the court will conduct a hearing on an ex parte basis on the same day the applicant submits the emergency petition. The applicant is not required to notify or serve a copy of the petition for urgent injunctive relief to the respondent. 6.4 Liability for Damages for the Applicant Issuing an injunctive relief order before the final judg- ment may cause damage to the respondent. In prac- tice, before the court grants such temporary measures, it will often require the applicant to deposit money or provide security as compensation for any potential damages the respondent may suffer. If the respondent is forced to comply with the injunctive relief order and sustains damages as a result, the respondent may be entitled to compensation. 6.5 Respondent’s Worldwide Assets and Injunctive Relief The jurisdiction of Thai courts is limited to the King- dom of Thailand. Further, Thai law does not specifi- cally address the issue of whether a Thai court could issue injunctive relief against a respondent’s assets located outside of Thailand. Accordingly, a Thai court would likely not agree to include assets located out- side of Thailand in a freezing order. Additionally, there are no treaties or international agreements to which Thailand is a party that would allow for enforcement against a respondent’s assets outside of Thailand. A judgment creditor would need to request or file a lawsuit in the court of the country in which the assets are located in order to obtain injunc- tive relief from that court, if available. 6.6 Third Parties and Injunctive Relief A request for injunctive relief can also affect third parties. This applies in cases where there is an order for the seizure of assets directed at a third party that has an obligation to deliver or transfer assets to the respondent to refrain from doing so and instead to deliver or transfer the assets to an enforcement offic-
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