%equity%

n.; pl. Equities [ F. équité, L. aequitas, fr. aequus even, equal. See Equal. ] 1. Equality of rights; natural justice or right; the giving, or desiring to give, to each man his due, according to reason, and the law of God to man; fairness in determination of conflicting claims; impartiality. [ 1913 Webster ]

Christianity secures both the private interests of men and the public peace, enforcing all justice and equity. Tillotson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) An equitable claim; an equity of redemption; as, an equity to a settlement, or wife's equity, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

I consider the wife's equity to be too well settled to be shaken. Kent. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Law) A system of jurisprudence, supplemental to law, properly so called, and complemental of it. [ 1913 Webster ]

Equity had been gradually shaping itself into a refined science which no human faculties could master without long and intense application. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Equitable jurisprudence in England and in the United States grew up from the inadequacy of common-law forms to secure justice in all cases; and this led to distinct courts by which equity was applied in the way of injunctions, bills of discovery, bills for specified performance, and other processes by which the merits of a case could be reached more summarily or more effectively than by common-law suits. By the recent English Judicature Act (1873), however, the English judges are bound to give effect, in common-law suits, to all equitable rights and remedies; and when the rules of equity and of common law, in any particular case, conflict, the rules of equity are to prevail. In many jurisdictions in the United States, equity and common law are thus blended; in others distinct equity tribunals are still maintained. See Chancery. [ 1913 Webster ]

Equity of redemption (Law), the advantage, allowed to a mortgageor, of a certain or reasonable time to redeem lands mortgaged, after they have been forfeited at law by the nonpayment of the sum of money due on the mortgage at the appointed time. Blackstone.

Syn. -- Right; justice; impartiality; rectitude; fairness; honesty; uprightness. See Justice. [ 1913 Webster ]