Cite as: 527 U. S. 308 (1999)
Opinion of Ginsburg, J.
incumbent on a district court to "match the scope of its injunction to the most probable size of the likely judgment," thereby sparing the defendant from undue hardship. See Hoxworth v. Blinder, Robinson & Co., 903 F. 2d 186, 199 (CA3 1990); cf. App. to Pet. for Cert. 53a (District Court expressed readiness to modify the preliminary injunction if necessary to GMD's continuance in business).
The protections in place guard against any routine or arbitrary imposition of a preliminary freeze order designed to stop the dissipation of assets that would render a court's judgment worthless. Cf. ante, at 327, 332-333. The case we face should be paradigmatic. There was no question that GMD's debt to Alliance was due and owing. And the short span—less than four months—between preliminary injunction and summary judgment shows that the temporary restraint on GMD did not linger beyond the time necessary for a fair and final adjudication in a busy but efficiently operated court. Absent immediate judicial action, Alliance would have been left with a multimillion dollar judgment on which it could collect not a penny.6 In my view, the District Court properly invoked its equitable power to avoid that manifestly unjust result and to protect its ability to render an enforceable final judgment.
At the hearing on the preliminary injunction, the District Judge asked: "We have got a case where there is no defense
6 Before the District Court, Alliance frankly acknowledged the existence of other, unrepresented creditors. While acting to protect its own interest, Alliance asked the District Court to fashion relief that "does not just directly benefit us, but benefits . . . the whole class of creditors" by creating "an even playing field" among creditors. App. to Pet. for Cert. 46a; see also id., at 45a (Alliance suggests that District Court direct GMD to set up a trust in compliance with Mexican law in order to oversee distributions to creditors). The Court supplies no reason to think that Alliance should have abandoned its rock-solid claim just because other creditors, for whatever reason, failed to bring suit. But cf. ante, at 331 ("respondents did not represent all of the holders of the Notes; they were an active few who sought to benefit at the expense of the other [creditors]").
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