§ 65.031.Dissolution; Award of Damages

A penalty for the delay injunction, and each of its conditions narrows it.

Where on final hearing a court dissolves in whole or in part an injunction enjoining the collection of money and the injunction was obtained only for delay, the court may assess damages equal to 10 percent of the amount released by dissolution, exclusive of costs.

Three conditions must all hold, and each does real work.

Dissolution on final hearing, not on an interim ruling — so the merits have been reached.

An injunction enjoining the collection of money, which confines the section to the case where delay has an obvious value: the applicant kept the money longer.

Obtained only for delay. That is the demanding condition. An injunction sought on a genuine ground that fails is outside the section; it must have been sought for delay and nothing else.

The measure is mechanical: 10 percent of the amount released. No proof of actual loss is required, which is what makes the remedy usable — the harm from delay is interest and inconvenience, both awkward to quantify.

"Exclusive of costs" keeps the base to the released sum rather than inflating it with the expenses of the proceeding.

The award is discretionary — the court may assess — so a finding of delay does not compel it.

The provision belongs to the same family as the limits on enjoining judgments. The chapter is consistently suspicious of injunctions used against the collection of money, and this attaches a price to the abuse.