BANS OF MATRIMONY. Public no tice or proclamation of a matrimonial con tract, and the intended celebration of the marriage of the parties in pursuance of such contract, to the end that persons objecting to the same may have an opportunity to de clare such objections before the marriage is solemnized. Pothier, Du Mariage, p. 2, c. 2. BAR. To Actions. A perpetual destruc tion of the action of the plaintiff.
It is the exceptio peremptoria of the ancient authors. Coke, Litt. 303 b ; Stephen, Plead. App. xxviii. It is always a perpetual destruction of the particular action to which it is a bar, Doctrina Plac. xxiii. 1, p. 129; and it is set up only by a plea to the action, or in ohief. But it does not always operate as a permanent. obstacle to the plaintiff's, right of action. lie may have good cause for an action, though not for the action which he has brought: so that, although that particular action, or any one like it in nature and based on the same allegations, is forever barred by a well pleaded bar, and a decision thereon in the defend ant's favor, yet where the plaintiff's difficulty really is that he has misconceived his action, and advan tage thereof be taken under the general issue (which is in bar), he may still bring his proper action for the same cause. Gould, Plead. c. v. 137; 6 Coke, 7, 8. Nor is final judgment on a demurrer, in such a case, a bar to the proper action, subsequently brought. Gould, Plead. c. ix. 0 46. And where a plaintiff in one action fails on demurrer, from the omission of an essential allegation in his declaration, which allegation is supplied in the second suit, the judgment in the first is no bar to the second; for the merits shown in the second declaration wero not decided in the first. Gould, Plead. c. ix. 0 45; c. v. 0 158.
Another instance of what is called a temporary bar is a plea (by executor, &c.) of plene adnzinie treat, which is a bar until it appears that more goods come into his hands ; and then it ceases to be a bar to that suit, if true before its final determi nation, or to a new suit of the same nature. Doc trine Plac. c. xxiii. 1, p. 130; 4 East, 508.
2. Where a person is bound in any action, real or personal, by judgment on demurrer. confession, or verdict, he is barred, that is, debarred, as to that or any other action of the like nature or degree, from the same thing forever. But the effect of such a bar is differ ent in personal and real actions.
In personal actions, as in debt or account, trovcr, replevin, and for torts generally (and all personal actions), a recovery by the plain tiff is a perpetual bar to another action for the same matter. He has had one recovery. Doctrine Plac. c.laviii. 1, p. 412. So where a defendant has judgment against the plain tiff, it is a perpetual bar to another action of like nature for the same cause (like nature being here used to save the cases of a mis conceived action or an omitted averment, where, as above stated, the bar is not perpe tual). And inasmuch as, in personal actions,
all are of the same degree, a plaintiff against whom judgment has passed cannot, for the sub ject thereof, have an action of a higher nature: therefore he generally has in such actions no remedy (no manner of avoiding the bar of such a judgment) except by taking the proper stops to reverse the very judgment it self (by writ of error, or by appeal, as the case may be), and thus taking away the bar by taking away the judgment. 6 Coke, 7, 8.. (For occasional exceptions to this rule, see authorities above cited.) 3. In real actions, if the plaintiff be barred as above by judgment on a verdict, demurrer, confession, etc., he may still have an action of a higher nature, and try the same right again. Lawes, Plead. 39, 40; Stearns, Real Act. See, generally, Bacon, Abr. Abatement, n.; Plea in bar; 3 East, 346-366.
In Practice. A particular part of the court-room.
As thus applied, and secondarily in various ways, it takes its name from the actual bar, or enclosing rail, which originally divided the bench from the rest of the room, as well as from that bar, or rail, which then divided, and now divides, the space including the bench, and the place which lawyers occupy in attending on and conducting trials, from the body of the court-room. Those who, as advo cates or counsellors, appeared as speakers in court, were said to be "called to the bar," that in, called to appear in presence of the court, as barristers, or persons who stay or attend at the bar of court. Richardson, Diet. Barrister. By a natural tran sition, a secondary use of the word was applied to the persons who were so called, and the advocates were, as a class, called "tbe bar." And in this country, since attorneys, as well as counsellors, ap pear in court to conduct causes, the members of the legal profession, generally, are called the bar.
The court, in its strictest sense, sitting in full term.
Thus, a civil case of great consequence was not left to be tried at nisi price, but was tried at the "bar of the court itself," at Westminster. 3 Black stone, Comm. 352. So a criminal trial for a capital offence was had "at bar," 4 Blackstone, Comm. 351; and in this sense the term at bar is still used. It is also used in this sense, with a shade of differ ence (as not distinguishing nisi price from full term, but as applied to any term of the court), when a person indicted for crime is called "tbe prisoner at the bar," or is said to stand at the bar to plead to the indictment. See Merlin, Repent. Barreac ; 1 Dupin, Prof. d'Ar. 451.
In Contracts. An obstacle or opposition. Thus, relationship within the prohibited de grees, or the fact that a person is already married, is a bar to marriage.