Examples for cases can but direct as precedents only. --Hooker.

        2. A preceding circumstance or condition; an antecedent; hence, a prognostic; a token; a sign. [Obs.]

        3. A rough draught of a writing which precedes a finished copy. [Obs.] --Shak.

        4. (Law) A judicial decision which serves as a rule for future determinations in similar or analogous cases; an authority to be followed in courts of justice; forms of proceeding to be  followed in similar cases. --Wharton.

        Syn: Example; antecedent.

        Usage: Precedent, Example. An example in a similar case which may serve as a rule or guide, but has no authority out of itself. A precedent is something which comes down to us from the past with the sanction of usage and of common consent. We quote examples in literature, and precedents in law. 

                                            Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary