Case
| Noun | 1. |  case - a comprehensive term for any proceeding in a court of law whereby an individual seeks a legal remedy; "the family brought suit against the landlord" |
| 2. | case - an occurrence of something; "it was a case of bad judgment"; "another instance occurred yesterday"; "but there is always the famous example of the Smiths" | |
| 3. | case - a special set of circumstances; "in that event, the first possibility is excluded"; "it may rain in which case the picnic will be canceled" Synonyms: event | |
| 4. | case - a problem requiring investigation; "Perry Mason solved the case of the missing heir" | |
| 5. | case - the actual state of things; "that was not the case" | |
| 6. | case - a statement of facts and reasons used to support an argument; "he stated his case clearly" | |
| 7. | case - a portable container for carrying several objects; "the musicians left their instrument cases backstage" | |
| 8. | case - a person who is subjected to experimental or other observational procedures; someone who is an object of investigation; "the subjects for this investigation were selected randomly"; "the cases that we studied were drawn from two different communities" Synonyms: guinea pig, subject | |
| 9. | case - a person requiring professional services; "a typical case was the suburban housewife described by a marriage counselor" | |
| 10. | case - the quantity contained in a case Synonyms: caseful | |
| 11. | case - a glass container used to store and display items in a shop or museum or home Synonyms: display case, showcase | |
| 12. | case - a specific state of mind that is temporary; "a case of the jitters" | |
| 13. | case - nouns or pronouns or adjectives (often marked by inflection) related in some way to other words in a sentence Synonyms: grammatical case | |
| 14. | case - the housing or outer covering of something; "the clock has a walnut case" | |
| 15. | case - a person of a specified kind (usually with many eccentricities); "a real character"; "a strange character"; "a friendly eccentric"; "the capable type"; "a mental case" | |
| 16. | case - an enveloping structure or covering enclosing an animal or plant organ or part Synonyms: sheath | |
| 17. | case - the enclosing frame around a door or window opening; "the casings had rotted away and had to be replaced" Synonyms: casing | |
| 18. | case - bed linen consisting of a cover for a pillow; "the burglar carried his loot in a pillowcase" | |
| Verb | 1. | case - look over, usually with the intention to rob; "They men cased the housed" |
| 2. | case - enclose in, or as if in, a case; "my feet were encased in mud" |
CASE, remedies. This is the name of an action in very general use, which
lies where a party sues for damages for any wrong or cause of complaint to
which covenant or trespass will not lie. Steph. Pl. 153 Wodd. 167 Ham. N. P.
1. Vide Writ of trespass on the case. In its most comprehensive
signification, case includes assumpsit as well as an action in form ex
delicto; but when simply mentioned, it is usually understood to mean an
action in form ex delicto. 7 T. R. 36. It is a liberal action; Burr, 906,
1011 1 Bl. Rep. 199; bailable at common law. 2 Barr 927-8; founded on the
justice and conscience of the Tiff's case, and is in the nature of a bill in
equity 3 Burr, 1353, 1357 and the substance of a count in case is the damage
assigned. 1 Bl. Rep. 200.
2. An action on the case lies to recover damages for torts not
committed with force actual or implied, or having been occasioned by force,
where the matter affected was not tangible, or where the injury was not
immediate but consequential; 11 Mass. 59, 137 1 Yeates, 586; 6 S. & R. 348;
12 S. & R. 210; 18 John. 257 19 John. 381; 6 Call, 44; 2 Dana, 378 1 Marsh.
194; 2 H. & M. 423; Harper, 113; Coxe, 339; or where the interest in the
property was only in reversion. 8 Pick. 235; 7 Conn. 3282 Green, 8 1 John.
511; 3 Hawks, 2462 Murph. 61; 2 N. H. Rep. 430. In these several cases
trespass cannot be sustained. 4 T. 11. 489 7 T. R. 9. Case is also the
proper remedy for a wrongful act done under legal process regularly issuing
from a court of competent jurisdiction. 2 Conn. 700 11 Mass. 500 6 Greenl.
421; 1 Bailey, 441, 457; 9 Conn. 141; 2 Litt. 234; 3 Conn. 5373 Gill & John.
377. Vide Regular and irregular process.
3. It will be proper to consider, 1. in what cases the action of
trespass on the case lies; 2. the pleadings 3. the evidence; 4. the
judgment.
4.-1. This action lies for injuries, 1. to the absolute rights of
persons 2. to the relative rights of persons; 3. to personal property; 4. to
real property.
5.-1. When the injury has been done to the absolute rights of persons
by an act not immediate but consequential, as in the case of special damages
arising from a public nuisance Willes, 71 to 74 or where an incumbrance had
been placed in a public street, and the plaintiff passing there received an
injury; or for a malicious prosecution. See malicious prosecution.
6.-2. For injuries to the relative rights, as for enticing away an
infant child, per quod servitium amisit, 4 Litt. 25; for criminal
conversation, seducing or harboring wives; debauching daughters, but in this
case the daughter must live with her father as his servant, see Seduction;
or enticing away or harboring apprentices or servants. 1 Chit. Pl. 137 2
Chit. Plead. 313, 319. When the seduction takes place in the husband's or
father's house, he may, at his election, have trespass or case; 6 Munf. 587;
Gilmer, but when the injury is done in the house of another, case is the
proper remedy. 5 Greenl. 546.
7.-3. When the injury to personal property is without force and. not
immediate, but consequential, or when the plaintiff Is right to it is in
reversion, as, where property is injured by a third person while in the
hands of a hirer; 3 Camp. 187; 2 Murph. 62; 3 Hawks, 246, case is the proper
remedy. 8 East, 693; Ld. Raym. 1399; Str. 634; 1 Chit. Pl. 138.
8.-4. When the real property which has been injured is corporeal, and
the injury is not immediate but consequential, as for example, putting a
spout so near the plaintiff's land that the water runs upon it; 1 Chit. Pl.
126, 141; Str. 634; or where the plaintiff's property is only in reversion.
When the injury has been done to, incorporeal rights, as for obstructing a
private way, or disturbing a party in the use of a pew, or for injury to a
franchise, as a ferry, and the like, case is the proper remedy. l Chit. Pl.
143.
9.-2. The declaration in case, technically so called, differs from a
declaration in trespass, chiefly in this, that in case, it must not, in
general, state the injury to have been committed vi et armis; 3 Conn. 64;
see 2 Ham. 169; 11 Mass. 57; Coxe, 339; yet after verdict, the words "with
force and arms" will, be rejected as surplusage; Harp. 122; and it ought not
to conclude contra pacem. Com. Dig. Action on the Case, C 3. The plea is
usually the general issue, not guilty.
10.-3. Any matter may, in general, be given in evidence, under the
plea of not guilty, except the statute of limitations. In cases of slander
and a few other instances, however, this cannot be done. 1 Saund. 130, n. 1;
Wilies, 20. When the plaintiff declares in case, with averments appropriate
to that form of action and the evidence shows that the injury was trespass;
or when he declares in trespass, and the evidence proves an injury for which
case will lie, and not trespass, the defendant should be acquitted by the
jury, or the plaintiff should be nonsuited. 5 Mass. 560; 16 Mass. 451; Coxe,
339; 3 John. 468.
11.-4. The judgment is, that the plaintiff recover a sum of money,
ascertained by a jury, for his damages sustained by the committing of the
grievances complained of in the declaration, and costs.
12. In the civil law, an action was given in all cases of nominate
contracts, which was always of the same name. But in innominate contracts,
which had always the same consideration, but not the same name, there could
be no action of the same denomination, but an action which arose from the
fact, in factum, or an action with a form which arose from the particular
circumstance, praescriptis verbis actio. Lec. Elem. Sec. 779. Vide,
generally, Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t.
CASE, STATED, practice. An agreement in writing, between a plaintiff and
defendant, that the facts in dispute between them are as there agreed upon
and mentioned, 3 Whart. 143.
2. The facts being thus ascertained, it is left for the court to decide
for which party is the law. As no writ of error lies on a judgment rendered
on a case stated, Dane's Ab. c. 137, art. 4, n. Sec. 7, it is usual in the
agreement to insert a clause that the case stated shall be considered in the
nature of special verdict.
3. In that case, a writ of error lies on the judgment which may be
rendered upon it. And a writ of error will also lie on a judgment on a case
stated, when the parties have agreed to it. 8 Serg. & Rawle, 529.
4. In another sense, by a case stated is understood a statement of all
the facts of a case, together with the names of the witnesses, and, a detail
of the documents which are to support them. In other words, it is a brief.
(q.v.)
| 1. | CASE - Computer Aided Software Engineering. | ||
| 2. | CASE - Common Application Service Element. | ||
| 3. | (programming) | case - switch statement. | |
| 4. | (character) | case - Whether a character is a capital letter ("upper
case" - ABC..Z) or a small letter ("lower case" - abc..z). The term case comes from the printing trade when the use of moving type was invented in the early Middle Ages (Caxton or Gutenberg?) and the letters for each font were stored in a box with two sections (or "cases"), the upper case was for the capital letters and the lower case was for the small letters. The Oxford Universal Dictionary of Historical Principles (Feb 1993, reprinted 1952) indicates that this usage of "case" (as the box or frame used by a compositor in the printing trade) was first used in 1588. |