plea in bar
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 320 U.S. 531 - United States v. Hark · 1944Most cited · 396 citing opinions
The material question is not how the defendant's pleading is styled but the effect of the ruling sought to be reviewed; and we have, therefore, treated a motion to quash, the grant of which would bar prosecution for the offense charged, as a plea in bar within the purview of the statute.
How the Supreme Court has restated “plea in bar”
Each Supreme Court definition of “plea in bar,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “plea in bar”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “plea in bar” — 482 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1850–1944
- ORIGINAL
pleas in bar... are never construed with the severity which is applied in testing pleas that are merely dilatory. If, by rational intendment, they meet the cause of action, or, in the quant phrase of the old writers, they are certain to a general intent, they are deemed sufficient. If their structure merely, and not their substance, is to be assailed, this must be done by a special demurrer; a proceeding by no means favored, as it has rarely any real relation to the merits of the controversy.
construction
To have constituted it a plea in bar of the action the amount beyond the sum lost should have been tendered and brought into court, setting up the theft as to the balance.