general verdict subject to a special case
Archaic. A court’s verdict rendered without regard to the jury’s general verdict, given when a party does not want to put the legal question on the record but merely wants the court to decide on the basis of a written statement of all the facts in the case, prepared for the opinion of the court by counsel on either side, according to the principles of a special verdict, whereupon the court decides the special case submitted and gives judgment accordingly.
