EQUALITY. Possessing the same rights, and being liable to the same duties. See 1 Toull. No. l70, 193, Int.
2. Persons are all equal before the law, whatever adventitious advantages some may possess over others. All persons are protected by the law, and obedience to it is required from all.
3. Judges in court, while exercising their functions, are all upon an equality, it being a rule that inter pares non est potestas; a judge cannot, therefore, punish another judge of the same court for using any expression in court, although the words used might have been a contempt in any other person. Bac. Ab., Of the court of sessions, of justices of the peace.
4. In contracts the law presumes the parties act upon a perfect equality; when, therefore, one party uses any fraud or deceit to destroy this equality, the party grieved may avoid the contract. In case of a grant to two or more persons jointly, without designating what each takes, they are presumed to take in equal proportion. 4 Day, 395.
5. It is a maxim, that when the equity of the parties is equal, the law must prevail. 3 Call, R. 259. And that, as between different creditors, equality is equity. 4 Bouv. Inst. n. 3725; 1 Page, R. 181. See Kames on Eq. 75. Vide Deceit; Fraud.
EQUINOX. The name given to two periods of the year when the days and nights are equal; that is, when the space of time between the rising and setting of the sun is one half of a natural day. Dig. 43, 13, 1, 8. Vide Day.
EQUITABLE. That which is in conformity to the natural law. Wolff, Inst. 83.
EQUITABLE ESTATE. An equitable estate is a right or interest in land, which, not having the properties of a legal estate, but being merely a right of which courts of equity will take notice, requires the aid of such court to make it available.
2. These estates consist of uses, trusts, and powers. See 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1884. Vide Cestui que trust; Cestui que use.
EQUITABLE MORTGAGE, Eng. law. The deposit of title-deeds, by the owner of an estate, with a person from whom he has borrowed money, with an accompanying agreement to execute a regular mortgage, or by the mere deposit, without even any verbal agreement respecting a regular security. 2 Pow. on Mort. 49 to 61; 1 Mad. Ch. Pr. 537; 4 Madd. R. 249; 1 Bro. C. C. 269; 12 Ves. 197; 3 Younge & J. 150; 1 Rus. R. 141.
2. In Pennsylvania, there is no such thing as an equitable mortgage. 3 P. S. R; 233; 3 Penna. R. 239; 17 S. & R. 70; 1 Penna. R. 447.
EQUITY. In the early history of the law, the sense affixed to this word was exceedingly vague and uncertain. This was owing, in part, to the fact, that the chancellors of those days were either statesmen or ecclesiastics, perhaps not very scrupulous in the exercise of power. It was then asserted that equity was bounded by no certain limits or rules, and that it was alone controlled by conscience and natural justice. 3 Bl. Com. 43-3, 440, 441.
2. In a moral sense, that is called equity which is founded, ex oequo et bono, in natural justice, in honesty, and in right. In an enlarged. legal view, "equity, in its true and genuine meaning, is the soul and spirit of the law; positive law is construed, and rational law is made by it. In this, equity is made synonymous with justice; in that, to the true and sound interpretation of the rule." 3 Bl. Com. 429. This equity is justly said to be a supplement to the laws; but it must be directed by science. The Roman law will furnish him with sure guides, and safe rules. In that code will be found, fully developed, the first principles and the most important consequences of natural right. "From the moment when principles of decision came to be acted upon in chancery," says Mr. Justice Story, "the Roman law furnished abundant materials to erect a superstructure, at once solid, convenient and lofty, adapted to human wants, and enriched by the aid of human wisdom, experience and learning." Com. on Eq. Jur. 23 Digest, 54.
3. But equity has a more restrained and qualified meaning. The remedies for the redress of wrongs, and for the enforcement of rights, are distinguished into two classes, first, those which are administered in courts of common law; and, secondly, those which are administered in courts of equity. Rights which are recognized and protected, and wrongs which are redressed by the former courts, are called legal rights and legal injuries. Rights which are recognized and protected, and wrongs which are redressed by the latter courts only, are called equitable rights and equitable injuries The former are said to be rights and wrongs at common law, and the remedies, therefore, are remedies at common law; the latter are said to be rights and wrongs in equity, and the remedies, therefore, are remedies in equity. Equity jurisprudence may, therefore, properly be said to be that portion of remedial justice which is exclusively administered by a court of equity, as contradistinguished from that remedial justice, which is exclusively administered by a court of law. Story, Eq. 25. Vide Chancery, and the authiorities there cited; and 3 Chit. Bl. Com. 425 n. 1. Dane's Ab . h. t.; Ayl. Pand. 37; Fonbl. Eq. b. 1, c. 1; Wooddes. Lect. 114 Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t.
EQUITY, COURT OF. A court of equity is one which administers justice, where there are no legal rights, or legal rights, but courts of law do not afford a complete, remedy, and where the complainant has also an equitable right. Vide Chancery.
EQUITY OF REDEMPTION. A right which the mortgagee of an estate has of redeeming it, after it has been forfeited at law by the non-payment at, the time appointed of the money secured by the mortgage to be paid, by paying the amount of the debt, interest and costs.
2. An equity of redemption is a mere creature of a court of equity, founded on this principle, that as a mortgage is a pledge for securing the repayraent of a sum of money to the mortgagee, it is but natural justice to consider the ownership of the land as still vested in the mortgagor, subject only to the legal title of the mortgagee, so far as such legal title is necessary to his security.
3. In Pennsylvania, however, redemption is a legal right. 11 Serg. & Rawle, 223.
4. The phrase equity of redemption is indiscriminately, though perhaps not correctly applied, to the right of the mortgagor to regain his estate, both before and after breach of condition, In North Carolina by statute the former is called a legal right of redemption; and the latter the equity of redemption, thereby keeping a just distinction between these estates. 1 N. C. Rev. St. 266; 4 McCord, 340.
5. Once a mortgage always a mortgage, is a universal rule in equity. The right of redemption is said to be as inseparable from a mortgage, as that of replevying from a distress, and every attempt to limit this right must fail. 2 Chan. Cas. 22; 1 Vern. 33, 190; 2 John. Ch. R. 30; 7 John. Ch. R. 40; 7 Cranch, R. 218; 2 Cowen, 324; 1 Yeates, R. 584; 2 Chan. R. 221; 2 Sumner, R. 487.
6. The right of redemption exists, not only in the mortgagor himself, but in his heirs, and personal representatives, and assignee, and in every other person who has an interest in, or a legal or equitable lien upon the lands; and therefore a tenant in dower, a jointress, a tenant by the curtesy, a remainder-man and a reversioner, a judgment creditor, and every other incumbrancer, unless he be an incumbrancer pendente lite, may redeem. 4 Kent, Com. 156; 5 Pick. R. 149; 9 John. R. 591, 611; 9 Mass. R. 422; 2 Litt. R. 334; 1 Pick. R. 485; 14 Wend. R. 233; 5 John. Ch. R. .482; 6 N. H. Rep. 25; 7 Vin. Ab. 52. Vide, generally, Cruise, Dig. tit. 15, c. 3; 4 Kent, Com. 148; Pow. on Mortg. eh. 10 and 11; 2 Black. Com. 158; 13 Vin. Ab. 458; 2 Supp. to Ves. Jr. 368; 2 Jac. & Walk. 194, n.; 1 Hill. Ab. c. 31; and article Stellionate.
EQUIVALENT. Of the same value. Sometimes a condition must be literally accomplished in forma specifica; but some may be fulfilled by an equivalent, per oequi polens, when such appears to be the intention of the parties; as, I promise to pay you one hundred dollars, and then die, my executor may fulfil my engagement; for it is equivalent to you whether the money be paid to you b me or by him. Roll. Ab. 451; 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 760.
EQUIVOCAL. What has a double sense.
2. In the construction of contracts, it is a general rule that when an expression may be taken in two senses, that shall be preferred which gives it effect. Vide Ambiguity; Construction; Interpretation; and Dig. 22, 1, 4; Id 45, 1, 80; Id. 50, 17, 67.
EQUULEUS. The name of a kind of rack for extorting confessions. Encyc. Lond.
ERASURE, contracts, evidence. The obliteration of a writing; it will render it void or not under the same circumstances as an interlineation. (q. v.) Vide 5 Pet. S. C. R. 560; 11 Co. 88; 4 Cruise, Dig. 368; 13 Vin. Ab. 41; Fitzg. 207; 5 Bing. R. 183; 3 C. & P. 65; 2 Wend. R. 555; 11 Conn. R. 531; 5 M. R. 190; 2 L. R. 291 3 L. R. 56; 4 L. R. 270.
2. Erasures and interlineations are presumed to have been made after the execution of a deed, unless the contrary be proved. 1 Dall. 67; 1 Pet. 169; 4 Bin. 1; 10 Serg. & R. 64, 170, 419; 16 Serg. & R. 44.
EREGIMUS. We have erected. In England, whenever the. right of creating or granting a new office is vested in the king, he must use proper words for the purpose, as eregimus, constituimus, and the like. Bac. Ab. Offices, &c., E.
EROTIC MANIA, med. jur. A name given to a morbid activity of the sexual propensity. It is a disease or morbid affection of the mind, which fills it with a crowd of voluptuous images, and hurries its victim to acts of the grossest licentiousness, in the absence of any lesion of the intellectual powers. Vide Mania.
ERROR. A mistake in judgment or deviation from the truth, in matters of fact and from the law in matters of judgment.
2. - 1 Error of fact. The law has wisely provide that a person shall be excused, if, intending to do a lawful act, and pursuing lawful means to accomplish his object, he commit an act which would be criminal or unlawful, if it were done with a criminal design or in an unlawful manner; for example, thieves break into my house, in the night time, to commit a burglary; I rise out of my bed, and seeing a person with a drawn sword running towards my wife, I take him for one of the burglars, and shoot him down, and afterwards find he was one of my friends, whom, owing to the dimness of the light, I could not recognize, who had lodged with me, rose on the first alarm, and was in fact running towards my wife, to rescue her from the hands of an assassin; still I am innocent, because I committed an error as to a fact, which I could not know, and had, no time to inquire about.
3. Again, a contract made under a clear error is not binding; as, if the seller and purchaser of a house situated in Now York, happen to be in Philadelphia, and, at the time of the sale, it was unknown to both parties that the house was burned down, there will be no valid contract; or if I sell you my horse Napoleon, which we both suppose to be in my stable, and at the time of the contract he is dead, the sale is void. 7 How. Miss. R. 371 3 Shepl. 45; 20 Wend. 174; 9 Shepl. 363 2 Brown, 27; 5 Conn. 71; 6 Mass. 84; 12 Mass. 36. See Sale.
4. Courts of equity will in general correct and rectify all errors in fact committed in making deeds and contracts founded on good considerations. See Mistake.
5. - 2. Error in law. As the law is, or which is the same thing, is presumed to be certain and definite, every man is bound to understand it, and an error of law will not, in general, excuse a man, for its violation.
6. A contract made under an error in law, is in general binding, for were it not so, error would be urged in almost every case. 2 East, 469; see 6 John. Ch. R. 166 8 Cowen, 195; 2 Jac. & Walk. 249; 1 Story, Eq. Jur. 156; 1 Younge & Coll. 232; 6 B. & C. 671 Bowy. Com. 135; 3 Sav. Dr. Rom. App. viii. But a foreign law will for this purpose be considered as a fact. 3 Shepl. 45; 9 Pick. 112; 2 Ev. Pothier, 369, &c. See, also, Ignorance; Marriage; Mistake.
7. By error, is also understood a mistake made in the trial of a cause, to correct which a writ of error may be sued out of a superior court.
ERROR, WRIT OF. A writ of error is one issued fro a superior to an inferior court, for the purpose of bringing up the record and correcting an alleged error committed in the trial in the court below. But it cannot deliver the body from prison. Bro. Abr. Acc. pl. 45. The judges to whom the writ is directed have no power to return the record nisi judicium inde redditum sit. Nor can it be brought except on the final judgment. See Metcalf's Case, 11 Co. Rep. 38, which is eminently instructive on this subject. Vide Writ of Error.
ESCAPE. An escape is tho deliverance of a person who is lawfully imprisoned, out of prison, before such a person is entitled to such deliverance by law. 5 Mass. 310.
2. It will be proper to consider, first, what is a lawful imprisonment; and, secondly, the different kinds of escapes.
3. When a man is imprisoned in a proper place under the process of a court having jurisdiction in the case, he is lawfully imprisoned, notwithstanding the proceedings may be irregular; but if the court has not jurisdiction the imprisonment is unlawful, whether the process be regular or otherwise. Bac. Ab. Escape. in civil cases, A 1; 13 John. 378; 5 John. 89; 1 Cowen, 309 8 Cowen, 192; 1 Root, R. 288.
4. Escapes are divided into voluntary and negligent; actual or constructive; civil and criminal and escapes on mesne process and execution.
5. - 1. A voluntary escape is the giving to a prisoner, voluntarily, any liberty not authorized by law. 5 Mass . 310; 2 Chipm. 11. Letting a prisoner confined under final process, out of prison for any, even the shortest time, is an escape, although he afterwards return; 2 Bl. Rep. 1048; 1 Roll. Ab. 806; and this may be, (as in the case of imprisonment under a ca. sa.) although an officer may accompany him. 3 Co. 44 a Plowd. 37; Hob. 202; 1 Bos. & Pull. 24 2 Bl. Rep. 1048.
6. The effect of a voluntary escape in a civil case, when the prisoner is confined under final process, is to discharge the debtor, so that he cannot be retaken by the sheriff; but he may be again arrested if he was confined only on mesne process. 2 T. R. 172; 2 Barn. & A. 56. And the plaintiff may retake the prisoner in either case. In a criminal case, on the contrary, the officer not only has a right to recapture his prisoner, but it is his duty to do so. 6 Hill, 344; Bac. Ab. Escape in civil cases, C.
7. - 2. A negligent escape takes place when the prisoner goes at large, unlawfully, either because the building or prison in which he is confined is too weak to hold him, or because the keeper by carelessness lets him go out of prison.
8. The consequences of a negligent escape are not so favorable to the prisoner confined under final process, as they are when the escape is voluntary, because in this case, the prisoner is to blame. He may therefore be retaken.
9. - 3. The escape is actual, when the prisoner in fact gets out of prison and unlawfully regains his liberty.
10. - 4. A constructive escape takes place when the prisoner obtains more liberty than the law allows, although he still remains in confinement The following cases are examples of such escapes: When a man marries his prisoner. Plowd. 17; Bac. Ab. Escape, B 3. If an underkeeper be taken in execution, and delivered at the prison, and neither the sheriff nor any authorized person be there to receive him. 5 Mass. 310. And when the keeper of a prison made one of the prisoners confined for a debt a turnkey, and trusted him with the keys, it was held that this was a constructive escape. 2 Mason, 486.
11. Escapes in civil cases are, when the prisoner is charged in execution or on mesne process for a debt or duty, and not for a criminal offence, and he unlawfully gains his liberty. In this case, we have seen, the prisoner may be retaken, if the escape have not been voluntary; and that he may be retaken by the plaintiff when the escape has taken place without his fault, whether the defendant be confined in execution or not; and that the sheriff may retake the prisoner, who has been liberated by him, when he was not confined on final process.
12. Escapes in criminal cases take place when a person lawfully in prison, charged with a crime or under sentence, regains his liberty unlawfully. The prisoner being to blame for not submitting to the law, and in effecting his escape, may be retaken whether the escape was voluntary or not. And he may be indicted, fined and imprisoned for so escaping. See Prison.
13. Escape on mesne process is where the prisoner is not confined on final process, but on some other process issued in the course of the proceedings, and unlawfully obtains his liberty, such escape does not make the officer liable, provided that on the return day of the writ, the prisoner is forthcoming.
14. Escape on final process is when the prisoner obtains his liberty unlawfully while lawfully confined, and under an execution or other final decree. The officer is then, in general, liable to the plaintiff for the amount of the debt.
ESCAPE, WARRANT. A warrant issued in England against a person who being charged in custody in the king's bench or Fleet prison, in execution or mesne process, escapes and goes at large. Jacob's L. D. h. t.
ESCHEAT, title to lands. According to the English law, escheat denotes an obstruction of the course of descent, and a consequent determination of the tenure, by some unforeseen contingency; in which case the land naturally results back, by a kind of reversion, to the original grantor, or lord of the fee.. 2 Bl. Com. 244.
2. All escheats, under the English law, are declared to be strictly feudal, and to import the extinction of tenure. Wright on Ten. 115 to 117; 1 Wm. Bl. R. 123.
3. But as the feudal tenures do not exist in this country, there are no private persons who succeed to the inheritance by escheat. The state steps in, in the place of the feudal lord, by virtue of its sovereignty, as the original and ultimate proprietor of all the lands within its jurisdiction. 4 Kent, Com. 420. It seems to be the universal rule of civilized society, that when the-deceased owner has left no heirs, it should vest in the public, and be at the disposal of the government. Code, 10, 10, 1; Domat, Droit Pub. liv. 1, t. 6, s. 3, n. 1. Vide 10 Vin. Ab. 139; 1 Bro. Civ. Law, 250; 1 Swift's Dig. 156; 2 Tuck. Blacks. 244, 245, n.; 5 Binn. R. 375; 3 Dane's Ab. 140, sect. 24; Jones on Land Office Titles in Penna. 5, 6, 93. For the rules of the Roman Civil Law, see Code Justinian, book 10.
ESCHEATOR. The name of an officer whose duties are generally to ascertain what escheats have taken place, and to prosecute the claim of the commonwealth for the purpose of recovering the escheated property. Vide 10 Vin. Ab. 158.
ESCROW, conveyancing, contracts. A conditional delivery of a deed to a stranger, and not to the grantee himself, until certain conditions shall be performed, and then it is to be delivered to the grantee. Until the condition be performed and the deed delivered over, the estate does not pass, but remains in the grantor. 2 Johns. R. 248; Perk. 137, 138.
2. Generally, an escrow takes effect from the second delivery, and is to be considered as the deed of the party from that time; but this general rule does not apply when justice requires a resort to fiction. The relation back to the first delivery, so as to give the deed effect from that time, is allowed in cases of necessity, to avoid injury to the operation of the deed, from events happening between the first and second delivery. For example, when a feme sole makes a deed and delivers it as an escrow, and then marries before the second delivery, the relation back to the time when she was sole, is necessary to render the deed valid. Vide 2 Bl. Com. 307; 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 2024; 4 Kent, Com. 446; Cruise, Dig. t. 32, c. 2, s. 87 to 91; Com. Dig. Fait, A 3; 13 Vin. Ab. 29; 5 Mass. R. 60; 2 Root, R. 81; 5 Conn. R. 113; 1 Conn. R. 375; 6 Paige's R. 314; 2 Mass. R. 452; 10 Wend. R. 310; 4 Green]. R. 20; 2 N. H. Rep. 71; 2 Watts', R. 359; 13 John. R. 285; 4 Day's R. 66; 9 Mass. R. 310 1 John. Cas. 81; 6 Wend. R. 666; 2 Wash. R. 58; 8 Mass. R. 238; 4 Watts, R. 180; 9 Mass. Rep. 310; 2 Johns. Rep. 258-9; 13 Johns. Rep. 285; Cox, Dig. tit, Escrow; Prest. Shep. Touch. 56, 57, 58; Shep. Prec. 54, 56; 1 Prest. Abst. 275; 3 Prest. Ab. 65; 3 Rep. 35; 5 Rep. 84.
ESCUAGE, old Eng. law. Service of the shield. Tenants who hold their land by escuage, hold by knight's service. 1 Tho. Co. Litt. 272; Littl. s. 95, 86 b.
ESNECY. Eldership. In the English law, this word signifies the right which the eldest coparcener of lands has to choose one of the parts of the estate after it has been divided.
ESPLEES. The products which the land or ground yields; as the hay of the meadows, the herbage of the pasture, corn or other produce of the arable, rents and services. Termes de la Ley; see 11 Serg. & R. 2-5; Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.
ESPOUSALS, contracts. A mutual promise between a man and a woman to marry each other, at some other time: it differs from a marriage, because then the contract is completed. Wood's Inst. 57; vide Dig. 23, 1, 1; Code, 5, 1, 4; Novel, 115, c. 3, s. 11; Ayliffe's Parerg. 245 Aso & Man. Inst. B. 1, t. 6, c. 1, 1.
ESQUIRE. A title applied by courtesy to officers of almost every description, to members of the bar, and others. No one is entitled to it by law, and, therefore, it confers, no distinction in law.
2. In England, it is a title next above that of a gentleman, and below a knight. Camden reckons up four kinds of esquires, particularly regarded by the heralds: 1. The eldest sons of knights and their eldest sons, in perpetual succession. 2. The eldest sons of the younger sons of peers, and their eldest sons in like perpetual succession. 3. Esquires created by the king's letters patent, or other investiture, and their eldest sons. 4. Esquires by virtue of their office, as justices of the peace, and others who bear any office of trust under the crown.
ESSOIN, practice. An excuse which a party bound to be in court on a particular day, offers for not being there. 1 Sell. Pr. 4; Lee's Dict. h. t.
2. Essoin day is the day on which the writ is returnable. It is considered for many purposes as the first day of the term. 1 T. R. 183. See 2 T. R. 16 n.; 4 Moore's R. 425. Vide Exoine.