SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE, remedies. The actual accomplishment¹ of a contract by the party bound to fulfil it.

2. Many contracts are entered into by parties to fulfil certain things, and then the contracting parties neglect or refuse to fulfil their engagements. In such cases the party grieved has generally a remedy at law, and he may recover damages for the breach² of the contract; but, in many cases, the recovery of damages is an incompetent³ remedy, and the party seeks to recover a specific performance of the agreement.

3. It is a general rule, that courts of equity⁴ will entertain jurisdiction⁵ for a specific performance of agreements, whenever courts of law can give but an inadequate⁶ remedy; and it is immaterial whether the subject relate to real or personal estate. 1 Madd. Ch. Pr. 295; 2 Story on Eq. §717; 1 Sim, & Stu. 607; 1 P. Wms. 570; 1 Sch. & Lef. 553; 1 Vern. 159.

4. But the rule is confined to cases where courts of law cannot give an adequate remedy. 2 Story on Eq. §718; Eden on Inj. ch. 3, p. 27. Vide, generally, 2 Story on Eq. ch. 18, §712 to 792; 1 Supp. to Ves. jr. 96, 148, 184, 211, 495; 2 Supp. to Ves. jr. 65, 164; Fonb. Eq. b. 1, c. 1, s. 5; Sugd. Vend⁷. 145.

SPECIFICATION⁸, civil law. A term used in the civil law, by which is meant a person's making a new species or subject from materials belonging to another. Bouv. Inst. Theolo. ps. 1, c. 1, art. 1, §4, Is. 4, p. 74.

2. When the new species can be again reduced to the matter of which it was made, the law considers the former mass as still existing, and, therefore, the new species as an accessory to the former subject; but where the thing made cannot be so reduced, as in the case of wine, which cannot be again turned into grapes, there is no place for the fictio juris; and, there, the workmanship draws after it the property of the material. Inst. 2, 1, 25 Dig. 41, 1, 7, 7. See Accession; Confusion; Mixtion; and Aso & Man. Inst. B. 2, t. 2, c. 8.

SPECIFICATION, practice, contracts. A particular and detailed⁹ account of a thing: example, in order to obtain a patent for an invention, it is necessary to file a specification or an instrument of writing, which must lay open and disclose to the public every part of the process by which the invention can be made useful if the specification does not contain the whole truth relative to the discovery, or contains more than is requisite¹⁰ to produce the desired effect, and the concealment¹¹ or addition was made for the purpose of deception¹², the patent would be void; for if the specification were insufficient¹³ on account of its want of clearness, exactitude or good faith, it would be a fraud on society that the patentee should obtain a monopoly without giving up his invention. 2 Kent, Com. 300; 1 Bell's Com. part 2, c. 3, s. 1, p. 112; Perpigna on Pat. 67; Renouard, Des Brevets d'Inv. 252.

2. In charges against persons accused of military offences, they must be particularly described and clearly expressed; this is called the specification. Tytl. on Courts Mart. 109.