Short answer. It dies on its own. Rule 58, Section 5 provides that if the application for preliminary injunction is denied or not resolved within the period, the temporary restraining order is deemed automatically vacated. No order lifting it is needed, and nobody has to ask for one.
What the law says
In the event that the application for preliminary injunction is denied or not resolved within the said period, the temporary restraining order is deemed automatically vacated.
Rule 58, Section 5 — Preliminary injunction not granted without notice; exception. Read the full provision →
What the law says
The effectivity of a temporary restraining order is not extendible without need of any judicial declaration to that effect
Rule 58, Section 5 — Preliminary injunction not granted without notice; exception. Read the full provision →
A deadline with a built-in consequence
Most procedural deadlines are enforced by someone moving to enforce them. This one enforces itself. Within the period of the restraining order the court is required to order the other party to show cause, determine whether the preliminary injunction should be granted, and issue the corresponding order. If that does not happen — whether the application is denied outright or simply left unresolved — the restraining order is deemed automatically vacated. The word deemed is what makes it self-executing.
No lifting order is required
The section reinforces the point by saying that the effectivity of a temporary restraining order is not extendible without need of any judicial declaration to that effect. Read together, these two sentences mean the same thing from opposite directions: expiry needs no paperwork. A party waiting for a written order lifting the restraint is waiting for something the rule does not require, and an order that says nothing about expiry has not thereby extended anything.
Why the design is deliberately harsh
A restraining order binds someone who has often not yet been heard, on the strength of affidavits alone. That is tolerable for a short period while the court arranges a proper hearing; it is not tolerable indefinitely. Automatic expiry puts the burden of speed on the applicant and on the court rather than on the restrained party. The alternative — an order that continues until somebody successfully moves to dissolve it — would let delay do the work that evidence is supposed to do.
Practical caution before acting on expiry
Automatic expiry is a rule about the restraining order, not a licence to disregard anything else in the case. Check the date the order was served and the exact period it carries — the periods differ for orders issued by trial courts, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court — and check whether a preliminary injunction was in fact granted within the period, because an injunction is a separate and continuing order. Acting on an assumed expiry without verifying either point is where people get into difficulty.