Initiation of foreclosure proceedings does not rise to the level of “irreparable harm” sufficient to justify a temporary injunction, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled.

The ruling came in a case involving a dispute over a $250,000 collateral mortgage, which the borrower claimed its original lender incorrectly assigned to a successor. Plus, the borrower argued, that successor nearly doubled the payoff amount to about $478,500—putting a kink in plans to sell the property to avoid foreclosure. In seeking the injunction, the plaintiff alleged usury and tortious interference in a real estate sale, but the Fourth DCA found otherwise.

“The initiation of foreclosure proceedings does not constitute irreparable harm,” Judges Martha Warner, Dorian Damoorgian and Alan Forst ruled in an unsigned decision issued July 19. “The only potential loss is economic, which can be adequately remedied by monetary damages.”