BANNS OF MATRIMONY. Public notice or proclamation of a matrimonial contract, 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 declare such ob jections before the marriage is solemnized. Cowell; 1 Bla. Com. 439; Pothier, Du Mar iage 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. Co. Litt. 303 b; Steph. Pl. App. xxviii. It Is always a perpetual destruction of the particu Zar action to which it is a bar, Doctrina Plac. § 1, p. 129 ; and It is eet up only by a plea to the action, or in chief. But It does not always operate as a permanent obstacle to the plaintiff's right of action. He 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 deci sion thereon in the defendant's favor, yet where the plaintiff's difficulty really is that he has miscon ceived his action, and advantage thereof be taken under the general issue (which Is in bar), he may still bring his proper action for the same cause; Gould, Pl. c. v. § 137; 6 Coke 7, 8. Nor is final judgment on a demurrer, in euch a case, a bar to the ,:roper action, subsequently brought ; Gould, Pl. c. ix. § 46. And where a plaintiff in ons 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 were not decided in the first ; Gould, Pl. c. ix. § 45 ; c. v. § 158.
Another Instance of what is called a temporary bar is a plea (by executor, etc.) of plene adminis travit, which is a bar until it appears that more goods have come into his hands, and then it ceases to be a bar to that suit, if true before Its final de termination, or to a new suit of the same nature: Doctrine Plac. e.. xxiii. § 1, p. 130; 4 East 508.
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 different in personal and real actions.
In personal actions, as in debt or account, trover, replevin, and for torts generally (and all personal actions), a recovery by the plaintiff is a perpetual bar to another action for the same matter. He has had oue re covery ; Doctr. Plac. c. lxviii. § 1, p. 412. So where a defendant has judgment against the plaintiff, it is a perpetual bar to another action of Pike nature for the same cause (like nature being here. used to save the cases of misconceived action or an omitted averment, where, as above stated, the bar is not perpetual). And inasmuch as, in per
sonal actions, all are of the same degree, a plaintiff against whom judgment has passed cannot, for the subject thereof, have an tion of a higher nature; therefore he gener ally has in such actions no remedy (no man ner of avoiding the bar of such a judgment) except by taking the proper steps to reverse the very judgment itself (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 ex ceptions to this rule, see authorities above cited.) In real actions, if the plaintiff be barred as above by judgment on a verdict, demur rer, confession, etc., he may still have an action of a higher nature, and try the same right again; Lewes, Plead. 39 ; Stearns, Real Act. See, generally, Bacon, Abr. Abatement, n.; Plea in bar; 3 East 346.
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 court-room, as well as from that bar, or rail, which then divided, and now usually divides, the space including the bench and the place which lawyers occupy in attending on and conducting tri als, from the body of the court-room.
Those who are authorized to appear before the court and conduct the trial of causes.
Those who, as advocates 'or counsellors, appeared as speakers in court, were said to be "called to the bar," that is, 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 transition, a secondary use of the word was applied to the persons who were so called, and the advocates were, as a class, called "the bar." And In this country, since attorneys, as well as counsellors, appear in court to conduct causes, the members of the legal profession, generally, are called the bar, and in this sense are employed the terms "members of the bar" and "admission to 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 prius, but was tried at the "bar of the court itself," at Westminster ; 3 Bla. Com. 352. So a criminal trial for a capital offence was had "at bar," 4 id. 351; it is still used in a criminal trial before three judges in the King's Bench Division. It is also used in this sense, with a shade of difference (as, not distinguishing nisi prius from full term, but as applied to any term of the court), when a person indicted for crime is called "the prisoner at the bar," or is said to stand at the bar to plead to the indictment. See Merlin, Rdpert. Barreau; 1 Dupin, Prof. d'Av. 451.
An obstacle or opposition. Thus, relation ship within the prohibited degrees, or the fact that a person is already married, is a bar to marriage.