What is "case stated"

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.

In law, a case stated is a procedure by which a court or tribunal can ask another court for its opinion on a point of law. There are two kinds: consultative case stated and appeal by way of case stated. A consultative case stated is made at the discretion of a judge before he or she determines the case before the court. An appeal by way of case stated is made at the request of a party to the proceedings to the judge after the conclusion of a case.

On the hearing of a case stated, the higher court is restricted to consideration of the law alone and is required to accept the statement of facts submitted to it by the lower court.

If the application is granted, the matter is referred to the higher court. This usually takes the form "were we/was I correct to ..." and then the specified aspect of law to which the appeal relates. If the application to state a case is refused, the applicant could seek redress by judicial review. The High Court will determine whether or not the law was correctly applied. If the appeal is upheld, the High Court will refer the case back to the appropriate magistrates' court with directions to correct its decision. Otherwise, the appeal would be dismissed.