OPINION
This is аn appeal from an order granting a temporary injunction. The interlocutory order for injunctive relief was granted by the court below pending trial set for March 12, 1990, in which appellees here, plaintiffs below, will seek: (1) declaratory judgment; (2) damаges under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983; and, (3) a permanent injunction. The order commands appellants to assist appellees in the furtherance of their study of medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and to refrain from interfering with such studies or with the tаking of National Board Exams by appellees.
Appellant brings nine points of error alleging, generally, that there is no evidence or insufficient evidence to support the findings of the trial court, and that the order overruled or changed a disсiplinary penalty set down by the president of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. We affirm the granting of the temporary injunction.
Appellees are twin brothers of Chinese ancestry who attend medical school at the university wherе appellants are faculty and administrators. During the first year of appellees’ attendance at the medical school *617 they were accused of cheating. Appellees acknowledged they had cheated by collaborating in the writing of a required paper which each of them submitted to professors of a course on the subject of medical ethics under color of his own respective individual authorship. When the university faculty discovered the papers were identical, a disciplinary complaint was issued by the school and a penalty was proposed by waiver of hearing. Appellees declined to waive, rejecting the remedy, and they allowed the matter to go to a hearing. The hеaring officer imposed the same penalty as the disciplinary complaint. Appellees took that decision on appeal to the president of the university who modified the penalty. Appellees agreed to the modification and commenced its performance on the assumption that the matter of scholastic dishonesty was resolved and that they were free to resume their medical education while remaining on probation until they completed cеrtain specified penance. Subsequently, the appellees’ grades for the course in which cheating occurred were changed to “Failing” and the two students were dropped from the rolls of the university on academic grounds. This lawsuit was then filed by the two students against appellants individually and in their official capacities with the university. A temporary injunction was requested in order to maintain the status quo until such time as a trial on the merits could take place.
After notice and hearing thе court granted the temporary injunction, announcing in open court, “I do not believe I am placing my judgment for either the academic or administrative sides of the university. I think they dealt with the problem one way and on the surface to a conclusion, and then dealt with it another way.” The following findings are contained in the order for temporary injunction:
1. Appellants acted contrary to the intent of the relevant Regents’ rules, as adopted by the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
2. Appellants acted unlawfully.
3. Appellants acted capriciously and improperly in subjecting appellees to a second suspension process under the guise of an “academic” process when the “scholastic dishonesty” committed by appellees had already been resolved in disciplinary proceedings set out by rules and regulations of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
4. That the President of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston had set the penalty оf appellees’ admitted scholastic dishonesty.
5. Appellees performed under the penalty set down by the Administration of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
6. Faculty at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, for rеasons not lawful, attempted to circumvent the decision of the Administration.
7. Appellants’ actions were a denial of due process of law, to appellees’ detriment.
8. Appellants’ actions were not based on professionаl judgment involving academics.
9. Appellants’ actions in overruling and changing the penalty as set down by the President of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston were motivated by matters totally different and separate from professionаl judgment concerning academics.
10. Without the temporary injunction, appellees would be wrongfully deprived of their right to attend classes at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
11. Appellees established a probable right to prevail in their lawsuit at a final hearing.
12. Appellees established a probable right to recovery.
18. Any monetary damages that might be recovered by appellees would not be adequate to compensate appel-lees for losses contained in their pleadings.
*618 14. Appellees would bе irreparably injured if the temporary injunction were not issued.
15. Equity required the issuance of the temporary injunction in order to prevent injustice to appellees.
Appellate review of an order for temporary injunction is limited strictly to whеther there has been a clear abuse of discretion by the court below in determining the need to preserve the status quo pending trial on the merits.
Davis v. Huey,
The appellate court will draw all legitimate inferences from the evidence in a manner most favorable to the trial court’s judgment.
Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. La Mansion Hotels and Resorts, Ltd.,
Abuse of discretion arises when the court misapplies the law to the established facts or when the evidence does not reasonably support the findings of probable injury or probable right of recovery.
State v. Southwestern Bell Tel. Co.,
A probable right to recovery must be shown by the party seeking a temporary injunction.
Transport Co. of Texas v. Robertson Transports,
Appellant’s nine points of error predominantly relate to allegations of no evidence or insufficient evidence to support findings that:
1. Appellees have any legally vested right worthy of protection.
2. Plaintiffs enjoy a right to attend classes at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
3. Plaintiffs have established a probable right to prevail in their lawsuit.
4. [This point of error presents the question of an overruling or changing of penalty by the trial court.]
5. Defendants have acted unlawfully, capriciously or improperly.
6. Defendants’ actions toward plaintiffs constituted a denial of due process.
7. Apрellants’ determination to grant appellees’ failing grades was motivated by matters totally different and separate from professional judgment concerning academics.
8. Appellees [sic] have acted contrary to the Regеnts’ Rules, as adopted by the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
9. Appellees would be irreparably injured if an injunction did not issue.
In points of error numbers one and two appellant urges that appellees were improperly granted injunctive relief because they lacked an existing and vested justiciable right worthy of relief and that they failed to plead or prove the existence of such a right, citing
inter alia, International Ass’n of Firefighters v. Firemen’s and Policemen’s Civil Servicе Comm’n,
Apрellant offers points of error numbers four and five with no discernable argument being presented. We do not see any support for an allegation that the court below changed a disciplinary penalty or how any such change could be used to challenge the propriety of the issuance of the temporary injunction. There is testimony in the record which tends to support a finding by the court that appellants acted unlawfully, capriciously or improperly which will be discussed later. Points of error numbеrs four and five are overruled.
As for points of error six and eight (as well as number five, already overruled), the record shows appellants were required to use disciplinary measures promulgated by the “Rules and Regulations of the Board of Regents оf the University of Texas System.” These Regents’ Rules “are of the same force as would be a like enactment of the Legislature.”
Foley v. Benedict,
Point of error number seven asserts no evidence that failing grade determination was motivated by non-professional academic judgment. The faculty member responsible for giving the failing grade to the two students testified that at least part of his reasoning for giving the failing grade was based on other than academic grounds. He also testified that his action in giving a failing grade was prompted by his belief that other uncharged but suspected cheating had taken place. This testimony tends to support a basis for appellees to prevail on the merits. Point of error number seven is overruled.
In their final point of error appellants claim a lack of evidence to support an irreparable injury аllegation by the appel-lees. There is evidence that appellees would lose one-year of time in the orderly completion of their medical education and that expulsion from medical school for failing grades may сarry stigma which would materially and adversely affect the career goals of the appellees. Additionally, if the agreement reached with the president of the university has ultimate merit, it cannot be performed by its terms without the ap-pellеes remaining in school pursuant to the injunction. There is evidence which tends to support a basis for recovery from irreparable injury to appellees if causation were to be proven at trial. Point of error number nine is overruled.
The evidence reasonably supports a finding of probable injury and probable right of recovery. We find no misapplication of law to established facts. The trial court did not abuse the discretion it has been given. The judgment of the trial court in granting the temporary injunction is affirmed.