CASE - A case describes a dispute
taken to court. An appellate court decision published
in a book of such decisions is also called a case
and may be used as guidance or precedent by other
courts. A person doing legal research will commonly
say that he has to look up a case to see if its ruling
on a point should be followed by other courts. The
core legal issue in a case is sometimes referred to
as the gravaman of the case.
A contested question before a court of justice; a
suit or action; a cause.
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.
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. It is a liberal
action bailable at common law founded on the justice
and conscience of the Tiff's case, and is in the nature
of a bill in equity and the substance of a count in
case is the damage assigned.
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; or where the interest
in the property was only in reversion. In these several
cases trespass cannot be sustained. Case is also the
proper remedy for a wrongful act done under legal
process regularly issuing from a court of competent
jurisdiction.
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.
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.
- 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 or where an incumbrance had been placed in
a public street and the plaintiff passing there received
an injury; or for a malicious prosecution.
- 2. For injuries to the relative rights, as for
enticing away an infant child, per quod servitium
amisit, for criminal conversation, seducing or harboring
wives; debauching daughters, but in this case the
daughter must live with her father as his servant;
or enticing away or harboring apprentices or servants.
When the seduction takes place in the husband's or
father's house, he may, at his election, have trespass
or case, but when the injury is done in the house
of another, case is the proper remedy.
- 3. When the injury to personal property is without
force and not immediate, but consequential, or when
the plaintiff's right to it is in reversion, as where
property is injured by a third person while in the
hands of a hirer, case is the proper remedy.
- 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 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.
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; yet after verdict,
the words 'with force and arms' will be rejected as
surplusage and it ought not to conclude contra pacem.
The plea is usually the general issue, not guilty.
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. 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.
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.
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.
