Why do courts seem to hate temporary injunctions? By the very nature of the relief requested, the parties come to court with urgency for immediate action. The trial judge has to find time on her docket for a hearing in a case that probably did not exist a week ago. The parties scramble to conduct discovery on shortened deadlines, and present issues that may not be ready for judicial action yet. Then there is the inevitable appeal by the losing side. Temporary injunctions are expensive, time-consuming, but seem to be the new version of “your day in court.”
And procedural pitfalls abound. The Fifth Court of Appeals at Dallas issued an opinion last week vacating a trial court’s temporary injunction because the trial court’s order failed to identify the irreparable harm that would result if the trial court did not issue the temporary injunction. Liberty Fed. Sav. Bank v. 2908 Lovers Lane Enter., LLC, No. 05-16-00389-CV. Specifically, the court took issue with the boiler plate statement that irreparable harm would occur with any indication of what the harm might be.
The case involved the plaintiffs attempts to stop a threatened foreclosure by obtaining a temporary injunction from the trial court, which the trial court granted. The Fifth Court of Appeals dissolved the temporary injunction because the boiler plate language that “Plaintiffs will suffer immediate and irreparable harm unless the Defendant is enjoined …” did not spell out the specific irreparable injury that the applicant would suffer absent the injunction. The court ruled that the boilerplate language did not satisfy Tex. R. Civ. P. 683’s requirement that “[e]very order granting an injunction and every restraining order … shall be specific in terms[.]”
This Dallas Court of Appeals opinion is something to keep in the back of your mind when preparing the form of the temporary injunction that you want the trial judge to sign. You also probably should keep it in mind when you are evaluating whether to seek interlocutory appellate review of a decision granting a temporary injunction.