Open

adj. Patent; visible; apparent; notorious; not clandestine; not closed, settled, fixed or terminated.

— Open hulk. In the mass ; exposed to view; not tied or sealed up. In re Sanders (G„ C.) 52 Fed. 807, 18 L. R. A. 549,

— Open court. This term may mean either a court which has been formally convened and declared open for the transaction of its proper judicial business, or a court which is freely open to the approach of all decent and orderly persons in the character of spectators. Hobart v. Hobart, 45 Iowa, 501; Conover v. Bird, 56 N. J. Law, 228, 28 Atl. 428; Ex parte Branch, 63 Ala. 383; Hays v. Railroad Go., 99 Md. 413, 58 Atl. 439.

— Open doors. In Scotch law. "Letters of open doors" are process which empowers the messenger, or officer of the law} to break open doors of houses or rooms in which the debtor has placed, his goods. Bell.

— Open fields, or meadows. In English law. Fields which are undivided, but belong to separate owners; the part of each owner is marked off by boundaries until the crop has been carried off, when the pasture is shared promiscuously by the joint herd of all the owners. Elton, Commons, 31; Sweet.

— Open law. The making or waging of law. Magna Charta, c. 21.

— Open season. That portion of the year wherein the laws for the preservation of game and fish permit the killing of a particular species of game or the taking of a particular variety of fish.

— Open theft. In Saxon law. The same with the Latin "furtum manifestum," (q. v.) As to open "Acoount," "Corporation," "Entry," "Insolvency," "Lewdness," "Policy," "Possession," and "Verdict," see those titles

v. To render accessible, visible or available; to submit or subject to examination, inquiry or review, by the removal of restrictions or impediments.
—Open a case. In practice To open a case is to begin it; to make an initiatory explanation of its features to the court, jury, referee, etc., by outlining the nature of the transaction on which it is founded, the questions involved, and the character and general course of the evidence to be adduced.
—Open a commission. To enter upon the duties under a commission, or commence to act under a commission, is so termed in English law. Thus, the judges of assize and nisi prius derive their authority to act under or by virtue of commissions directed to them for that purpose; and, when they commence acting under the powers so committed to them, they are said to open the commissions ; and the day on which they so commence their proceedings is thence termed the "commission day of the assizes." Brown.
—Open a conrt. To open a court is to make a formal announcement, usually by the crier or bailiff, that its session has now begun and that the business before the court will be proceeded with.
—Open a credit. To accept or pay the draft of a correspondent who has not furnished funds. Par-dessus, no. 296.
—Open a deposition. To break the seals by which it was secured, and lay it open to view, or to bring it into court ready for use.
—Open a jndgment. To lift or relax the bar of finality and conclusiveness which it imposes so as to permit a re-examination of the merits of the action in which it was rendered. This is done at the instance of a party showing good cause why the execution of the judgment would be inequitable. It so far annuls the judgment as to prevent its enforcement until the final determination upon it, but does not in the mean time release its lien upon real estate. See Insurance Co. v. Beale, 110 Pa. 32l, 1 Atl. 926. -
—Open a rule. To restore or recall a nils which has been made absolute to its conditional state, as a rule nisi, so as to readmit of cause being shown against the rule. Thus, when a rule to show cause has been made absolute under a mistaken impression that no counsel had been instructed to show cause against it, it is usual for the party at whose instance the rule was obtained to consent to have the rule opened, by which all the proceedings subsequent to the day when cause ought to have been shown against it are in effect nullified, and the rule is then argued in the ordinary way. Brown.
— Open a street or highway. To establish it by law and make it passable and available for public travel. See Reed v. Toledo, 18 Ohio, 161; Wilcoxon v. San Luis Obispo, 101 Cal. 508, 35 Pac. 988; Gaines v. Hudson County Ave. Com'rs, 37 N. J. Law, 12.
—Open bids. To open bids received on a foreclosure or other judicial snie is to reject or cancel them for fraud, mistake, or other cause, and order a reside of the property. Andrews v. Scotton, 2 Bland (Md.) 644.
—Open the pleadings. To state briefly at a trial before a jury the substance of the pleadings. This is done by the junior counsel for the plaintiff at the commencement of the trial.