## Facts

- Jones leased basement rooms in a building Parker agreed to construct, under a written lease containing express covenants about the premises’ fit-out.
- Parker covenanted to provide heating and artificial lighting for the leased basement space.
- The building was constructed and Jones entered into possession, but Parker did not install the promised heating and lighting.
- Jones filed a bill in equity seeking specific performance of the covenants and damages for losses caused by the breach.
- Parker demurred, asserting the bill did not state a basis for equitable relief; the trial court sustained the demurrer and dismissed the bill.

## Issues

1. Whether equity should decree specific performance of a lessor’s lease covenant requiring installation of heating and lighting in leased premises.
2. Whether the availability of reasonably ascertainable damages and the need for ongoing judicial supervision make specific performance inappropriate.

## Decision

- The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts affirmed the order sustaining the demurrer and dismissing the bill.
- The court declined to decree specific performance of the heating and lighting covenants.
- The lessee’s remedy was an action at law for damages.

## Legal Principles

- There is no absolute rule that equity can never enforce agreements requiring building or similar work, but such relief is exceptional.
- Specific performance is generally denied when a money judgment can compensate the injury with reasonable certainty.
- Equity avoids decrees that require continuous court oversight of technical, detailed, and changing performance obligations.
- Absent special circumstances making damages inadequate, lease covenants to perform construction-type work will ordinarily be left to legal remedies.

## Conclusion

The court held that compelling a landlord to install heating and lighting under a lease would require impracticable judicial supervision and was unnecessary because damages could adequately compensate the lessee, so equitable specific performance was denied.


Jones v. Parker, 163 Mass. 564 (1895)