Rule 65.Injunctions.

Rule 65(a) bars a preliminary injunction from issuing without notice to the adverse party. Rule 65(b) allows a temporary restraining order without written or oral notice only if specific facts shown by affidavit or verified complaint clearly show immediate and irreparable injury before the adverse party can be heard, and the applicant's attorney certifies in writing what efforts were made to give notice and why notice should be excused. A no-notice order must state the date and hour it was issued, be filed and entered of record at once, describe the injury and explain why it's irreparable and why notice was skipped, and expire within a time the judge sets -- not more than 10 days -- unless extended for good cause or with the restrained party's consent, with the reasons for any extension entered of record. If a party obtains a no-notice order and moves for a preliminary injunction, that motion is set for the earliest possible hearing and takes precedence over all but older matters of the same kind; if the moving party doesn't pursue the preliminary injunction when the hearing arrives, the judge dissolves the restraining order. On two days' notice (or shorter, if the judge allows it), the restrained party may move to dissolve or modify the order, and the judge must hear and decide that motion as quickly as justice requires, with damages available on dissolution under section (e).

Rule 65(c) conditions a restraining order or preliminary injunction on the applicant posting security, in whatever sum the judge deems proper, to cover costs and damages if the restrained party turns out to have been wrongly enjoined. No security is required of the State of North Carolina, a county, a municipality, or an officer or agency of any of them acting officially, though damages may still be awarded against them; nor is security required of a spouse seeking a restraining order or preliminary injunction against the other spouse in a support, alimony, custody, separation, or divorce suit to prevent interference, threats, or molestation, though damages remain available there too. A surety on a bond under this rule submits to the court's jurisdiction and appoints the clerk as agent for service of papers affecting the surety's liability, which may be enforced by motion without a separate action.

Rule 65(d) requires every injunction and restraining order to state the reasons for its issuance, be specific in its terms, and describe the restrained acts in reasonable detail rather than by reference to the complaint or another document; it binds only the parties, their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and anyone else acting in concert with them who receives actual notice of the order. Rule 65(e) lets an order or judgment dissolving an injunction or restraining order include an award of damages against the party who procured it and that party's sureties, without any need to show malice or a lack of probable cause; the judge may determine the damages directly or send that question to a referee or jury.