Syllabus - court, ed and opinion

SYLLABUS. An abstract ; a head note. The brief statement of the point or points de cided, prefixed to the printed report of a case. The head note of a reported case is a thing upon which much skill and thought is required to express in clear, concise language the principle of law to be deduced, or the de cision to which it is prefixed, or the facts and circumstances which bring the case in hand within the same principle or rule of law or of practice. 17 C. B. 459.

Unless the headnote is given special force by statute or rule of court, the opinion is to be looked to for the original and authentic grounds of the decision ; Burbank v. Ernst, 232 U. S. 162, 34 Sup. Ct. 299, 58 L. Ed.

If made under a statute, the opinion may be examined to ascertain the scope of the deci sion ; Ohio Tax Cases, 232 U. S. 576, 34 Sup. Ct. 37L, 58 L. Ed. It should be used only as a guide to the decision, even if pre pared by the court itself ; Brief Making, by Lile and others, Coolers Ed. 116.

The duty of framing the syllabus of its opinions cannot be imposed upon a court ex cept by constitutional provision ; Ex parte Griffiths, 118 lud. 83, 20 N. E. 513, 3 L. R. A. 398, 10 Am. St. Rep. 107.

In West Virginia it is the law of the case, whatever may be the reasoning of the opinion of the court ; Kuhn v. Coal Co., 215 U. S. 356, 30 Sup. Ct. 140, 54 L. Ed. 228.

A collection. The word, in the sense of a catalogue or list, is used of a collection of eighty condemned propositions addressed by Pope Pius IX to all the Catholic episcopate, December 8, 1864. It gave rise to the most violent polemics ; the Ultramontane party was loud in its praise, while the liberals treated it as a declaration of war by the church on modern society and civilization. Encycl. Br.