Megarry, J., as he then was, put the principle rather succinctly in the case of Bates v. Lord Hailsham of Marylebone (1972) 3 All ER. 1019 at p.1025 where he stated: An injunction is a serious matter, and must be treated seriously. If there is a plaintiff who has known about a proposal for ten weeks in general terms and for nearly four weeks in detail, and he wants an injunction to prevent effect being given to it at a meeting of which he has known for well over a fortnight, he must have a most cogent explanation if he is to obtain his injunction on an ex-parte application made two and a half hours before the meeting is due to begin. It is no answer to say, as counsel for the plaintiff sought to say, that the grant of an injunction will do the defendants no harm, for apart from other considerations, an inference from an insufficiently explained tardiness in the application is that the urgency and the gravity of the plaintiffs case are less than compelling. Ex-parte injunctions are for cases of real urgency, where there has been a true impossibility of giving notice of motion.
EX PARTE ORDERS LAST FOR 14 DAYS ONLY OR THE DATE FIXED FOR THE HEARING OF THE MOTION ON NOTICE
Now, it must be acknowledged and emphasized that the said freezing order made on 29/11/2010 was made ex-parte. Implicit in that is the law that exparte orders are by their very nature not intended or meant to last forever, but to have a short life span, usually for 7 or 14 days depending on the...