What is "case at bar"

Bar \Bar\ (b[aum]r), n. [OE. barre, F. barre, fr. LL. barra, W. bar the branch of a tree, bar, baren branch, Gael. & Ir. barra bar. [root]9

1. ] 1. A piece of wood, metal, or other material, long in proportion to its breadth or thickness, used as a lever and for various other purposes, but especially for a hindrance, obstruction, or fastening; as, the bars of a fence or gate; the bar of a door.

   Thou shalt make bars of shittim wood.
   --Ex. xxvi. 26.

2. An indefinite quantity of some substance, so shaped as to be long in proportion to its breadth and thickness; as, a bar of gold or of lead; a bar of soap.

3. Anything which obstructs, hinders, or prevents; an obstruction; a barrier.

   Must I new bars to my own joy create?
   --Dryden.

4. A bank of sand, gravel, or other matter, esp. at the mouth of a river or harbor, obstructing navigation.

5. Any railing that divides a room, or office, or hall of assembly, in order to reserve a space for those having special privileges; as, the bar of the House of Commons.

6. (Law)

   1. The railing that incloses the place which counsel occupy in courts of justice. Hence, the phrase at the bar of the court signifies in open court.

   2. The place in court where prisoners are stationed for arraignment, trial, or sentence.

   3. The whole body of lawyers licensed in a court or district; the legal profession.

   4. A special plea constituting a sufficient answer to plaintiff's action.

7. Any tribunal; as, the bar of public opinion; the bar of God.

8. A barrier or counter, over which liquors and food are passed to customers; hence, the portion of the room behind the counter where liquors for sale are kept.

9. (Her.) An ordinary, like a fess but narrower, occupying only one fifth part of the field.

10. A broad shaft, or band, or stripe; as, a bar of light; a bar of color.

11. (Mus.) A vertical line across the staff. Bars divide the staff into spaces which represent measures, and are themselves called measures.

    Note: A double bar marks the end of a strain or main division of a movement, or of a whole piece of music; in psalmody, it marks the end of a line of poetry. The term bar is very often loosely used for measure, i.e., for such length of music, or of silence, as is included between one bar and the next; as, a passage of eight bars; two bars' rest.

12. (Far.) pl.

    1. The space between the tusks and grinders in the upper jaw of a horse, in which the bit is placed.

    2. The part of the crust of a horse's hoof which is bent inwards towards the frog at the heel on each side, and extends into the center of the sole.

13. (Mining)

    1. A drilling or tamping rod.

    2. A vein or dike crossing a lode.

14. (Arch.)

    1. A gatehouse of a castle or fortified town.

    2. A slender strip of wood which divides and supports the glass of a window; a sash bar.

       Bar shoe (Far.), a kind of horseshoe having a bar across the usual opening at the heel, to protect a tender frog from injury.

       Bar shot, a double headed shot, consisting of a bar, with a ball or half ball at each end; -- formerly used for destroying the masts or rigging in naval combat.

       Bar sinister (Her.), a term popularly but erroneously used for baton, a mark of illegitimacy. See Baton.

       Bar tracery (Arch.), ornamental stonework resembling bars of iron twisted into the forms required.

       Blank bar (Law). See Blank.

       Case at bar (Law), a case presently before the court; a case under argument.

       In bar of, as a sufficient reason against; to prevent.

       Matter in bar, or Defence in bar, any matter which is a final defense in an action.

       Plea in bar, a plea which goes to bar or defeat the plaintiff's action absolutely and entirely.

       Trial at bar (Eng. Law), a trial before all the judges of one the superior courts of Westminster, or before a quorum representing the full court.

Case \Case\, n. [F. cas, fr. L. casus, fr. cadere to fall, to happen. Cf. Chance.]

1. Chance; accident; hap; opportunity. [Obs.]

   By aventure, or sort, or cas.
   --Chaucer.

2. That which befalls, comes, or happens; an event; an instance; a circumstance, or all the circumstances; condition; state of things; affair; as, a strange case; a case of injustice; the case of the Indian tribes.

   In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge.
   --Deut. xxiv. 1

3. If the case of the man be so with his wife.
   --Matt. xix. 10.

   And when a lady's in the case You know all other things give place.
   --Gay.

   You think this madness but a common case.
   --Pope.

   I am in case to justle a constable,
   --Shak.

   3. (Med. & Surg.) A patient under treatment; an instance of sickness or injury; as, ten cases of fever; also, the history of a disease or injury.

   A proper remedy in hypochondriacal cases.
   --Arbuthnot.

4. (Law) The matters of fact or conditions involved in a suit, as distinguished from the questions of law; a suit or action at law; a cause.

   Let us consider the reason of the case, for nothing is law that is not reason.
   --Sir John Powell.

   Not one case in the reports of our courts.
   --Steele.

5. (Gram.) One of the forms, or the inflections or changes of form, of a noun, pronoun, or adjective, which indicate its relation to other words, and in the aggregate constitute its declension; the relation which a noun or pronoun sustains to some other word.

   Case is properly a falling off from the nominative or first state of word; the name for which, however, is now, by extension of its signification, applied also to the nominative.
   --J. W. Gibbs.

   Note: Cases other than the nominative are oblique cases. Case endings are terminations by which certain cases are distinguished. In old English, as in Latin, nouns had several cases distinguished by case endings, but in modern English only that of the possessive case is retained.

   Action on the case (Law), according to the old classification (now obsolete), was an action for redress of wrongs or injuries to person or property not specially provided against by law, in which the whole cause of complaint was set out in the writ; -- called also trespass on the case, or simply case.

   All a case, a matter of indifference. [Obs.] ``It is all a case to me.''
   --L'Estrange.

   Case at bar. See under Bar, n.

   Case divinity, casuistry.

   Case lawyer, one versed in the reports of cases rather than in the science of the law.

   Case stated or Case agreed on (Law), a statement in writing of facts agreed on and submitted to the court for a decision of the legal points arising on them.

   A hard case, an abandoned or incorrigible person. [Colloq.]

   In any case, whatever may be the state of affairs; anyhow.

   In case, or In case that, if; supposing that; in the event or contingency; if it should happen that. ``In case we are surprised, keep by me.''
   --W. Irving.

   In good case, in good condition, health, or state of body.

   To put a case, to suppose a hypothetical or illustrative case.

   Syn: Situation, condition, state; circumstances; plight; predicament; occurrence; contingency; accident; event; conjuncture; cause; action; suit.