Forms: 4–6 equite, -yte, (4 equitee, -ytee, -ytie, 5 eqwyte), 4–7 equitie, (6 æquitie, -ity), 6 equity. [a. OF. equité = Pr. equitat, Sp. equidad, It. equità, ad. L. æquitāt-em, f. æquus even, fair.]
I. In general.
1. The quality of being equal or fair; fairness, impartiality; evenhanded dealing.
The L. æquitas was somewhat influenced in meaning by being adopted as the ordinary rendering of Gr. ἐπιείκεια (see EPIKY), which meant reasonableness and moderation in the exercise of one’s rights, and the disposition to avoid insisting on them too rigorously. An approach to this sense is found in many of the earlier Eng. examples.
c. 1315. Shoreham, 154. Thet hys hys pryvete Of hys domes in equyte.
1382. Wyclif, Mal. ii. 6. In equitee he walkide with me.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VII. x. 491. Be justys he gave and eqwyte Til ilke man, þat his suld be.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 6 a. He [God] shal juge you in equite.
1535. Coverdale, Job xxix. 14. Equity was my crowne.
1588. J. Udall, Diotrephes (Arb.), 19. Weigh it in the ballance of equitie.
1611. Bible, Transl. Pref., 10. They can with no show of equitie challenge vs for changing and correcting.
1660. Jer. Taylor, Duct. Dubit., III. vi. § 1. 399. Not to punish any man more than the law compels us; that’s equity.
1673. Rules of Civility (ed. 2), 141. The person of honour is in equity to go in first.
1759. Robertson, Hist. Scot., II. VIII. 32. These princes readily acknowledged the equity of his claim.
a. 1832. Mackintosh, Revol., Wks. 1846, II. 158. Those principles of equity and policy on which religious liberty is founded.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 257. There is a singular equity and absence of party passion.
2. concr. What is fair and right; something that is fair and right. rarely in pl.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., IV. vi. 144. Amonges þise þinges sitteþ þe heye makere … to don equite.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIX. 305. He dede equite to alle euene forth his powere.
1483. Caxton, Cato, A viij. That he may do equyte and justyce.
1875. Manning, Mission H. Ghost, x. 267. The equities which we owe to our neighbour.
II. In Jurisprudence.
3. The recourse to general principles of justice (the naturalis æquitas of Roman jurists) to correct or supplement the provisions of the law. Equity of a statute: the construction of a statute according to its reason and spirit, so as to make it apply to cases for which it does not expressly provide.
1574. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 6 a. They bee taken by the equitie of the statute.
1642. Perkins, Prof. Bk., iv. § 270. 120. Such Assetts are not taken by the equitie of the Statute of Gloucester.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Handy Bk. Prop. Law, ii. 3. Chancellors … moderated the rigour of the law according … to equity.
4. In England (hence in Ireland and the United States), the distinctive name of a system of law existing side by side with the common and statute-law (together called ‘law’ in a narrower sense), and superseding these, when they conflict with it.
The original notion was that of sense 3, a decision ‘in equity’ being understood to be one given in accordance with natural justice, in a case for which the law did not provide adequate remedy, or in which its operation would have been unfair. These decisions, however, were taken as precedents, and thus ‘equity’ early became an organized system of rules, not less definite and rigid than those of ‘law’; though the older notion long continued to survive in the language of legal writers, and to some extent to influence the practice of equity judges. In England, equity was formerly administered by a special class of tribunals, of which the Court of Chancery was chief; but since 1873 all the branches of the High Court administer both ‘law’ and ‘equity,’ it being provided that where the two differ, the rules of equity are to be followed. Nevertheless, the class of cases formerly dealt with by the Court of Chancery are still reserved to the Chancery Division of the High Court.
1591. Lambarde, Archeion (1635), 46. And likewise in his Court of Equitie, he doth … cancell and shut up the rigour of the generall Law. Ibid., 58. That the Iustices should informe him [the King] of the Law, and the Chancellor of Equitie.
1745. De Foe’s Eng. Tradesman, II. xxxix. 116. He will always have the worst of it in equity, whatever he may have at common law.
1765–9. Blackstone, Comm., III. (1770), 47 (J.). In the court of chancery … there are two distinct tribunals; the one ordinary, being a court of common law; the other extraordinary, being a court of equity.
1832. Austin, Jurispr. (1879), I. 40. Equity sometimes signifies a species of law.
1853. Wharton, Pa. Digest, 708. Equity will grant relief when … a contract is made under a mistake.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Handy Bk. Prop. Law, ii. 3. There are settled and inviolable rules of equity, which require to be moderated by the rules of good conscience.
b. Defined so as to include other systems analogous to this; e.g., the prætorium jus of the Romans.
1861. Maine, Anc. Law, ii. (1870), 28. What I call equity … any 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.
5. An equitable right, i.e., one recognizable by a court of equity. Often in pl.
a. 1626. Bacon, Max. & Uses Com. Law (1630), 65. Vpon which agreement in Writing, there ariseth an Equitie or Honestie, that the land should goe according to those agreements.
1826–30. Kent, Comm. Amer. Law (1873), II. 118. The wife’s equity to a suitable provision for the maintenance of herself and her children.
1844. J. Williams, Real Prop. (ed. 12), 177. Incidental equities are also to be recognized by the Courts respectively and every judge thereof.
1883. Sir E. E. Kay, in Law Times Rep., XLIX. 77/2. It was hardly said that he was entitled to any charge, or lien, or equity on this particular fund.
b. Equity of redemption: the right that a mortgagor who has in law forfeited his estate has of redeeming it within a reasonable time by payment of the principal and interest. Equity to a settlement: a wife’s equitable right to have settled upon her any properties coming to her after marriage.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 67. But has not Esquire South the equity of redemption?
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. 159. This reasonable advantage, allowed to mortgagors, is called the equity of redemption.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Handy Bk. Prop. Law, xiv. 92. Twenty years’ adverse possession, by a person claiming the equity of redemption, will bar the rightful owner.
6. attrib. and Comb., as equity-bar, court, -judge, -lawyer. Also equity-draughtsman, a barrister who draws pleadings in equity.
a. 1832. Bentham, Justice & Codific. Petit., Wks. 1843, V. 484/2. Turn first to the self-styled equity courts.
