§ 65.001.Application of Equity Principles

One sentence importing centuries of doctrine.

The principles governing courts of equity govern injunction proceedings if not in conflict with this chapter or other law.

What that brings in is most of what decides injunction cases. The requirement of a probable right to relief, of imminent and irreparable injury, and of no adequate remedy at law; the balancing of harms; the discretion to withhold relief; and the maxims about clean hands and delay.

None of that appears in the chapter’s text, which sets out grounds, jurisdiction, venue and bonds — and leaves the substance to equity.

Texas has no separate courts of equity, and never had. Law and equity were administered together from the Republic, so the reference is to a body of principle rather than to a forum.

The priority rule is the usual one: equity governs if not in conflict with this chapter or other law, so statute displaces principle where the two meet.

Several provisions in the chapter do exactly that. The limits on staying a judgment, the restriction on enjoining a city closing a street, and the bond exemption for a homeowner facing foreclosure each override what equity alone would produce.

The grounds section makes the deference explicit in the other direction, listing as a ground that the applicant is entitled to a writ "under the principles of equity".

So the chapter and equity are read together throughout, and a practitioner working from the statute alone will find most of the answers missing.