PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: Rita Samoreno Gomes and Petra Carreira, PLMJ
6.4 Liability for Damages for the Applicant
against a person, they must be included in the application for injunctive relief so that they are bound by the injunction. 6.7 Consequences of a Respondent’s Non-compliance Anyone that fails to comply with the terms of an injunction commits the crime of disobedience. This is in addition to any appropriate measures to enforce the injunction and possible civil liabil- ity for damages caused by that disobedience. Civil trials are conducted in the presence of the judge, the court clerk and counsel for the par- ties. The parties or their representatives may also be present. The procedure involves mostly oral argument and witness/expert examination. The court will first encourage the parties to reach a settlement. If this is not possible, the trial pro- ceeds to the taking of witness evidence. Witness Evidence 7. Trials and Hearings 7.1 Trial Proceedings Witnesses can be listed in the statement of claim or the statement of defence, or added in the pre- trial hearing or up to 20 days before the trial. Each party may usually call up to ten witnesses to testify. Each witness takes an oath to tell the truth at the beginning of their testimony, under penalty of committing a criminal offence. The witnesses called by the plaintiff are heard before the witnesses for the defendant. Counsel for the opposing party is entitled to cross-examine the witness but may not broaden the scope of the questions put by counsel for the party that called the witness. The court may intervene at any time and put questions to the witness. The testimony of witnesses is only relevant to facts
In principle, the applicant will not be held liable for any potential losses suffered by the respond- ent, even if the respondent later discharges the injunction successfully. The reason for this is that the injunction is granted by the court and any resulting harm to the respondent will have been duly weighed (proportionality test). However, in some cases where the injunction is deemed unjustified or expires due to the applicant’s actions or omissions, the latter can be held liable for damages if it did not act in a prudent man- ner. In the case of ex parte injunctions, it may be more frequent for the applicant to be held liable for losses suffered by the respondent. If this is the case, the applicant will, in principle, not be required to provide any security for such potential losses. 6.5 Respondent’s Worldwide Assets and Injunctive Relief Portuguese law does not expressly limit injunc- tive relief to assets located in Portugal. Therefore, it seems that injunctions can be ordered with respect to the domestic and worldwide assets of the respondent. It will then be a question of determining whether the injunction ordered by a Portuguese court will be enforceable in the juris- diction where the relevant assets are located. The enforcement of injunctions in Portugal is limited to the assets that are within Portugal. Portuguese courts can grant injunctive relief on worldwide assets in support of foreign proceed- ings, provided all applicable legal requirements are met. 6.6 Third Parties and Injunctive Relief As a rule, only the addressees of injunctions (ie, respondents) are bound by their terms. If the applicant intends to obtain injunctive relief
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