The Delaware judge effectively declared a cease-fire in the war between the network and its controlling shareholder, Ms. Redstone. The ruling from the bench — in effect, the judicial version of buying time — followed a flurry of legal volleys by each side concerning the fate of CBS, which Ms. Redstone hopes to merge with its fellow National Amusements media company, Viacom.

CBS had been resisting the attempt by Ms. Redstone to orchestrate the merger. But what had been a cold war started to burn hot on Monday, when a lawyer representing the network and its key board members filed a lawsuit against National Amusements and Ms. Redstone, seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent her from interfering with a special meeting of the CBS board scheduled for Thursday.

The board planned to vote on a special stock dividend that would drastically water down the Redstone family’s voting stake at CBS to 17 percent from 79 percent — a move that would give Mr. Moonves more freedom to reject a merger with Viacom. In its lawsuit, CBS claimed that Ms. Redstone would seek to prevent the meeting and perhaps even replace the members of the board with her allies — something Ms. Redstone, the vice chairwoman of CBS, has denied.

“N.A.I. does not have, and has never had, any intention of replacing the CBS board or taking other action to force a merger,” lawyers for National Amusements said in a filing on Wednesday.

Chancellor Andre G. Bouchard of Delaware’s Court of Chancery put a temporary halt to the legal wrangling in his decision. Technically, he granted CBS’s request for the temporary restraining order, but with modifications. The judge is expected to issue a more expansive ruling on Thursday concerning whether the result of the CBS board’s planned vote will be allowed to go into effect.