United Brotherhood of Carpenters, Local No. 101 v. United Slate Tile & Composition Roofers

Delaplaine, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Here are presented two appeals, one by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Local No. 101, and the other by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Local No. 544, from an order of the Circuit Court No. 2 of Baltimore City overruling their demurrers to the second amended bill of complaint filed by the United Slate Tile and Composition Roofers, Damp and Waterproof Workers’ Association, Local No. 80. The second amended bill of the Roofers’ Union prays for an injunction against the Carpenters’ Unions. The purpose of the suit is to determine the parties who have the right to lay the roofs at the Sparrows Point Housing Project in Baltimore.

It is admitted by the parties that the work on this project has been completed. Under these circumstances, it is clear that there is no ground for the issuance of an injunction with respect to the Sparrows Point Housing Project, even if the complainant might have been entitled to the writ at the time the suit was entered. Injunction is primarily a preventive remedy. Its province is to afford relief against future acts which are against equity and good conscience, and to keep a condition in statu quo, rather than to remedy something which is past or to punish for wrong ²⁸² ful acts already committed.

Consequently it is a general rule that rights already lost and wrongs already perpetrated cannot be corrected by injunction. It is the condition of things at the time of the hearing of the suit, rather than the condition existing at the commencement of the suit, that furnishes the basis for injunctive relief. It is