Tennessee injunctions: a restraining order can only stop something, an injunction can order it

Tennessee names three instruments and gives them different powers. Asking the wrong one to do the wrong job is the most common defect in an application here, and the rule states the distinction in two sentences.

Three forms, and one that cannot order anybody to act

Rule 65.01:

Injunctive relief may be obtained by (1) restraining order, (2) temporary injunction, or (3) permanent injunction in a final judgment. A restraining order shall only restrict the doing of an act. An injunction may restrict or mandatorily direct the doing of an act.

So if what you need is for someone to do something — restore a service, return property, put a fence back — a restraining order cannot deliver it however urgent the situation. You need a temporary injunction, with the notice and hearing that carries.

That is a real trap for an emergency application drafted at speed. Read your proposed order: if any paragraph begins "shall provide," "shall restore" or "shall deliver," it is mandatory relief and the restraining order route is closed.

The order has to speak for itself

Rule 65.02(1):

Every restraining order or injunction shall be specific in terms and shall describe in reasonable detail, and not by reference to the complaint or other document, the act restrained or enjoined.

Not by reference to the complaint. An order that enjoins the defendant "from the conduct described in paragraphs 12 through 19" does not comply. The order must be readable on its own by someone who has never seen the pleadings — which is the point, because of who it binds.

Who is bound

Rule 65.02(2) reaches beyond the parties:

Every restraining order or injunction shall be binding upon the parties to the action, their officers, agents and attorneys; and upon other persons in active concert or participation with them who receive actual notice of the restraining order or injunction by personal service or otherwise.

Officers, agents and attorneys are bound automatically. Everyone else is bound if they are in active concert or participation with a party and receive actual notice — by personal service "or otherwise," so informal notice can suffice.

Read together with the specificity requirement, the design is clear: the order binds strangers to the litigation, so it has to be intelligible to strangers to the litigation.

Who may grant one, and who may dissolve it

Rule 65.03(2) restricts the first and widens the second:

A restraining order may be granted only by a judge of the court in which the action is pending or is to be filed; provided that if the judge of that court is disqualified, disabled or absent from the county, it may be granted by any judge having statutory power to enjoin or restrain.

Note "or is to be filed" — the judge of the intended court may grant the order before the case exists, which matters when the emergency arrives before the complaint is finished.

The fallback is a real one. If that judge is disqualified, disabled or absent from the county, the application goes to any judge having statutory power to enjoin or restrain — so an emergency does not wait on one judge's calendar.

Dissolution runs on a parallel track: a restraining order "may be dissolved on motion by the judge of the court in which the action is pending, or if this judge is disqualified" by another judge under the rule. So the judge who granted it in an emergency is not necessarily the judge who reviews it.

Bonds, notice and the hearing

The rest of Rule 65 carries the machinery you would expect: security before an order issues, the notice requirements for a temporary injunction, and the procedure for a hearing. The important sequencing point for a Tennessee application is that the restraining order is the instrument available quickly and narrowly, and the temporary injunction is the instrument available on notice and broadly.

Plan the application as two steps where the relief you ultimately need is mandatory: a restraining order to hold the position, followed by a temporary injunction motion for the direction you actually want.

Enforcement is by contempt

Rule 65.06 says what happens when an order is broken:

Upon a showing by affidavit or other evidence of the breach or threatened breach of a restraining order or injunction, compliance with such order or injunction may be compelled or its disobedience punished as a contempt by a judge of the court in which the action is pending, or if this judge is disqualified, disabled or absent from the county, by a judge of a court having comparable jurisdiction.

Note "or threatened breach." A party does not have to wait for the order to be violated; a showing that it is about to be is enough to bring the matter back before the court.

Note also that the same substitute-judge structure runs through the whole rule. If the judge of the court where the case is pending is disqualified, disabled or absent from the county, a judge of a court with comparable jurisdiction can act — on granting, on dissolving, and here on enforcement.

The showing is "by affidavit or other evidence," so a motion resting on argument alone will not carry it.

Domestic relations cases are largely outside the rule

Rule 65.07 sets two limits, and the second is wide:

The provisions of this rule shall be subject to any contrary statutory provisions governing restraining orders or injunctions. In domestic relations cases, restraining orders or injunctions may be issued upon such terms and conditions and remain in force for such time as shall seem just and proper to the judge to whom application therefor is made, and the provisions of this rule shall be followed only insofar as deemed appropriate by such judge.

In a domestic relations case the fifteen-day limit, the bond requirement and the rest of the rule's machinery are not fixed points. Terms, conditions and duration are what the judge thinks "just and proper," and the rule is followed "only insofar as deemed appropriate by such judge."

That is a broader carve-out than most states write. Colorado simply declares its rule inapplicable to family cases; Tennessee keeps the rule in the background but makes it advisory.

The first sentence matters everywhere else: a contrary statute governing a particular kind of injunction displaces the rule, so the statute is the first thing to check.

A short checklist

1. Read your proposed order for mandatory language. "Shall do" needs an injunction, not a restraining order.
2. Describe the conduct in the order itself, in reasonable detail, without cross-referring to the complaint.
3. Identify who else is bound — officers, agents and attorneys automatically; others in active concert on actual notice.
4. Give actual notice to anyone you expect the order to bind beyond the parties.
5. Apply to the judge of the court where the case is pending or is to be filed.
6. Use the fallback if that judge is disqualified, disabled or absent from the county — any judge with statutory power to enjoin.
7. Plan the two-step where you need mandatory relief: restrain now, direct on notice.
8. Expect the dissolution motion to go to the judge of the court where the action is pending.
9. Draft with strangers in mind. The order has to be intelligible to someone who never saw the file.
10. Check the security requirement before the order issues.

Where these rules live

• Tenn. R. Civ. P. 65 — Injunctions
• Tenn. R. Civ. P. 6 — Time
• Responding to a Tennessee complaint
• Tennessee motion to dismiss
• Tennessee depositions

This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and the showing required for injunctive relief is developed in case law this site doesn't cover.