Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

428

EQUITY, COURTS OF

EQUITY

"The meaning of the word 'equity,' as used ia its technical sense in English jurisprudence, comes back to this: that it is simply a term descriptive of a certain field of jurisdiction exercised, in the English system, by certain courts, and of which the extent and boundaries are not marked by lines founded upon principle so much as by the features of the original constitution of the English scheme of remedial law, and the accidents of its develop ment. " Bisp. Eq. § 11. A system of jurisprudence collateral to, and in some respects independent of, "law," properly so called; the object of which is to render the ad ministration of justice more complete, by affording relief where the courts of law are incompetent to give it, or to give it with effect, or by exercising certain branches of jurisdiction independently of them. This is equity in its proper modern sense; an elaborate system cf rules and process, adminis tered in many cases by distinct tribunals, (termed "courts of chancery,") and with exclusive juris diction over certain subjects. It is "still distin guished by its original and animating principle that no right should be without an adequate rem edy, n and its doctrines are founded upon the same basis of natural justice; but its action has become systematized, deprived of any loose and arbitrary character which might once have belonged to it, and as carefully regulated byfixedrules and prece dents as the law itself. Burrill. Equity, in its technical and scientific legal use, means neither natural justice nor even all that por tion of natural justice which is susceptible of be ing judicially enforced. It has a precise, limited, and definite signification, and is used to denote a system of justice which was administered in a par ticular court,—the English high court of chancery. —which system can only be understood and ex plained by studying the history of that court, and how it came to exercise what is known as its ex traordinary jurisdiction. Bisp. Eq. § 1. That part of the law which, having power to en force discovery, (1) administers trusts, mort gages, and other fiduciary obligations; (2) admin isters and adjusts common-law rights where the courts of common law have no machinery; (3} sup plies a specific and preventive remedy for com mon-law wrongs where courts of common law only give subsequent damages. Chute, Eq. 4. Equity is not the chancellor's sense of moral right, or his sense of what is equal and just, but is a complex system of established law; and an equitable maxim—as equality is equity—can only be applied according to established rules. 23 Me 360. 5. Equity also signifies an equitable right, i. e., a right enforceable in a court of equity; hence, a bill of complaint which did not show that the plaintiff had a right entitling him to relief was said to be demurrable for want of equity; and certain rights now recognized in all the courts are still known as "equities," from having been originally recognized only in the court of chancery, ttweet* EQUITY, COUBTS OP. Courts which administer justice according to the system of equity, and according to a peculiar course of procedure or practice. See EQUITY. Fre

iue. w Inst. 1, 1, 3. It is therefore the syn onym of natural right or justice. But in this sense its obligation is ethical rather than jural, and its discussion belongs to the sphere of morals. It is grounded in the precepts of the conscience, not in any sanction of pos itive law. 2. In a more restricted sense, the word de notes equal and impartial justice as between two persons whose rights or claims are in conflict; justice, that is, as ascertained by natural reason or ethical insight, but inde pendent of the formulated body of law. This is not a technical meaning of the term, except in so far as courts which administer equity seek to discover it by the agencies above mentioned, or apply it beyond the strict lines of positive law. 3. In one of its technical meanings, equity is a body of jurisprudence, or field of jurisdic tion, differing in its origin, theory, and meth ods from the common law. It is a body of rules existing by the side of the original civil law, founded on distinct principles, and claiming incidentally to supersede the civil law in virtue of a superior sanctity inherent in those principles. Maine, Anc. Law, 27. "As old rules become too narrow, or are felt to be out of harmony with advancing civilization, a ma chinery is needed for their gradual enlargement and adaptation to new views of society. One mode of accomplishing this object on a large scale, with out appearing to disregard existing law, is the in troduction, by the prerogative of some high func tionary, of a more perfect body of rules, discover able in his judicial conscience, which is to stand side by side with the law of the land, overriding it in case of conflict, as on some title of inherent su periority, but not purporting to repeal it. Such a body of rules has been called 'Equity.' " HolL Jur. 59. "Equity," in its technical sense, contradistin guished from natural and universal equity or jus tice, may well be described as a "portion of jus tice" or natural equity, not embodied in legislative enactments, or in the rules of common law, yet modified by a due regard thereto and to the com plex relations and conveniences of an artificial state of society, and administered in regard to cases where the particular rights, in respect of which relief is sought, come within some general class of rights enforced at law, or may be enforced with out detriment or inconvenience to the community; but where, as to such particular rights, the ordi nary courts of law cannot, or originally did not, clearly afford relief. Rob. Eq. 4. In a still more restricted sense, it is a sys tem of jurisprudence, or branch of remedial justice, administered by certain tribunals, distinct from the common-law courts, and empowered to decree "equity" in the sense last above given. Here it becomes a com plex of well-settled and well-understood rules, principles, and precedents.

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