§ 65.022.Return of Writ; Hearing by Nonresident Judge

The longest section in the chapter, and it exists because injunctive relief cannot wait for the right judge.

Except as provided by this section, a writ of injunction is returnable only to the court granting the writ.

Four exceptions follow, each requiring a different showing.

The first is unavailability of the resident judge: where that judge refuses to act or cannot hear and act because of absence, sickness, inability, inaccessibility, or disqualification. The facts must be fully set out in the application or an accompanying affidavit, a judge who refuses must note the refusal and the reasons on the writ, and no district judge may grant the writ if another district judge has acted on the application.

That last clause is the anti-shopping rule. An applicant refused by one judge cannot take the same application to another.

The second exception is subject-specific and urgent. A district judge may grant a writ returnable elsewhere to stay execution or restrain foreclosure, sale under a deed of trust, trespass, removal of property, or an act injurious to riparian or easement rights, on satisfactory proof that it is impracticable to reach the resident judge in time.

Those are the acts that happen on a date and cannot be undone — a foreclosure sale being the clearest.

The third covers pure inaccessibility, where the resident judge cannot be reached by the ordinary and available means of travel and communication in sufficient time. The applicant must attach an affidavit fully stating the facts of the inaccessibility and the efforts made, the judge shall refuse to hear unless satisfied that fair and reasonable efforts were made, and the injunction may be dissolved if they were not.

Three separate safeguards on one exception — a sworn account, a duty to refuse, and a ground for dissolution — which is a measure of how readily the route could otherwise be abused.

The fourth applies the same scheme within the business court, one business court judge acting where another cannot be reached.