Unless otherwise ordered by the court, an interlocutory or final judgment in an action for an injunction or in a receivership shall not be stayed during the period after its entry and until an appeal is taken or during the pendency of an appeal. Petitioners did not seek an injunction from the superior court. They sought to have the superior court review, in the nature of certiorari, the Town Council's decision to deny the special use permit, pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. When a superior court's jurisdiction is invoked under G.S. 160A-381, the superior court judge sits as an appellate court, not a trial court. In this case, because the superior court was sitting as an appellate court in review of a quasi-judicial decision by the Town Council, it had no authority to grant an injunction.
Injunctions are equitable remedies ordinarily fashioned by trial courts.
In this case, the superior court's order to the Town Council to grant the special use permit was an appellate court's mandate to a lower tribunal, not an injunction. As stated above, we believe that Rule 62 does apply to a superior court's review under 160A-381 of a town council's grant or denial of a special use permit, even though the superior court reviews that decision as an appellate court. See N.C.R. Civ. It follows that in this case, an automatic stay against proceedings to enforce the superior court's mandate arose when the order was entered on 15 May 1997. The stay lasted until the time to file notice of appeal expired on 16 June 1997.