Rule 98.05.Preliminary Order--Contents.

Once a preliminary order in quo warranto issues under Rule 98.04, Rule 98.05 spells out its required content and how it gets to the respondent. At minimum, the order must require the respondent to file an answer within a time the court fixes, giving the case a concrete deadline just as Rule 97.05 does for prohibition.

Unlike the parallel prohibition rule, Rule 98.05 does not give the court the option of ordering the respondent to refrain from acting in the meantime. That difference fits the nature of the two writs: prohibition often needs to pause an ongoing proceeding before it goes further, while quo warranto challenges someone's underlying title to an office or franchise, a question that does not typically call for freezing the respondent's conduct while the case is pending.

The delivery mechanism matches prohibition practice: the clerk must forthwith deliver a copy of the preliminary order, together with a copy of the petition, for service to the sheriff or to another person specially appointed to serve it. On permitted service methods, Rule 98.05 is broader than the parallel prohibition rule: service may be made as provided in Rule 43.01 or Rule 54, while Rule 97.05 authorizes service only under Rule 54.