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Rule 65 – Injunctions.

May 14, 2021 | Domestic Relations, Family Law, Rhode Island

(a) Preliminary Injunction.

(1) Notice. No preliminary injunction shall be issued without notice to the adverse party.
(2) Hearing; Consolidation of Hearing With Trial on Merits. An application for a preliminary injunction shall be heard on evidence or affidavits or both at the discretion of the court. Before or after the commencement of the hearing of an application for a preliminary injunction, the court may order the trial of the action on the merits to be advanced and consolidated with the hearing of the application.
(b) Temporary Restraining Order; Motion for Emergency Relief; Notice; Hearing; Duration; Dissolution; Modification; Denial.

(1)Notice. No motion for a temporary restraining order or motion for emergency relief shall be granted without notice to the adverse party unless it clearly appears from specific facts shown by affidavit that immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage will result to the applicant before notice can be served and a hearing had thereon. Every motion for temporary restraining order or motion for emergency relief granted without notice and any order granted pursuant there to shall be indorsed with the date and hour of issuance; shall be filed forthwith in the clerk’s office and entered of record; and shall expire by its terms within such time after entry as the court fixes, not to exceed thirty (30) days. A copy of the motion, affidavit, and order shall be served personally on the adverse party. If the person making service, after diligent effort, is unable to personally serve the adverse party, service may be accomplished by any other method ordered by the court.
(2)Duration. The court may extend the time so fixed within the order for an additional period by consent or for good cause shown and after hearing of argument by the parties or attorneys.
(3)Expedited Hearing. In case a temporary restraining order or an order for emergency relief is granted without notice, the motion requesting such relief shall be set down for hearing at the earliest possible time and may be given precedence of all matters except older matters of the same character; and when the motion comes on for hearing the party who obtained the order shall proceed with the motion and, if he or she the moving party does not do so, the court shall dissolve the temporary restraining order or the order granting emergency relief.
(4)Dissolution or Modification. On two (2) days’ notice to the party who obtained the temporary restraining order or an order granting emergency relief without notice or on such shorter notice to that party as the court may prescribe, the adverse party may appear and move for the dissolution or modification and in that event the court shall proceed to hear and determine such motion as expeditiously as the ends of justice require.
(5)Denial. If a motion for a temporary restraining order or a motion for emergency relief without notice to the adverse party is made to and denied by one (1) judicial officer of the court, such motion shall not again be made to any other judicial officer unless there is a material change in circumstances. The judicial officer to whom such motion was originally presented shall note the court’s action in the case file containing such motion.
(c) Security. Upon the issuance of a restraining order, an order for emergency relief, or a preliminary injunction, the court may order the giving of security by the applicant, in such sum as the court deems proper, for the payment of such costs and damages as may be incurred or suffered by any party who is found to have been wrongfully enjoined or restrained.

A surety upon a bond or undertaking under this rule submits to the jurisdiction of the court and irrevocably appoints the clerk of the court as the surety’s agent upon whom any papers affecting the surety’s liability on the bond or undertaking may be served. The surety’s liability may be enforced on motion without the necessity of an independent action. The motion and such notice of the motion as the court prescribes may be served on the clerk of the court who shall forthwith mail send copies to the surety’s last known address.

(d) Form and Scope of Injunction, or Restraining Order or Order for Emergency Relief. Every order granting an injunction or emergency relief and every restraining order shall be specific in terms; shall describe in reasonable detail the act or acts sought to be restrained or the acts ordered to be performed; and is binding only upon the parties to the action who receive notice of the order by personal service, their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and upon those persons in active concert or participation with them who receive actual notice of the order by personal service or otherwise.

R.I. Fam. Ct. R. Dom. Rel. P. 65