Ruling, means the outcome of a court's decision either on some point of law or on the case as a whole, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1334.
Ruling, signify the outcome of applying a legal test when that outcome is one of relatively narrow Impact. The immediate effect is to decide an issue in a single case. This meaning contrast, for example, with the usual meaning of 'legal rule'. The term rule ordinarily refers to a legal proposition of general application. A ruling may have force as precedent, but ordinarily it has that force because the conclusion it expresses (for example 'objection sustained') explicitly depends upon and implicitly reiterates a 'rule' -- a legal proposition of more general application--..', Judging 67-68, 1990, By Robert E. Keeton.