In accordance with the general rule that one seeking equity must do equity, a landowner praying for a mandatory injunction to compel the removal of an encroachment by an adjoining owner must offer to do equity.  In Tehan v. Security Nat’l Bank, the court commented that so long as the plaintiffs themselves continue to obstruct the passageway, they are not entitled to equitable relief against a similar obstruction by the bank.[i]  The principal of equity is that one who seeks equity must do equity and come into court with clean hands.[ii]

[i] Tehan v. Security Nat’l Bank, 340 Mass. 176, 183 (Mass. 1959)

[ii] Malnar v. Whitefield, 1989 OK CIV APP 28 (Okla. Ct. App. 1989)