Equity? Do we have any idea what it is Today?
“Law is nothing without equity, and equity is everything, even without the law.” This is a huge topic: First installment of what will be a multipart series. Part I.
“Law is nothing without equity, and equity is everything, even without the law.”
John Bouvier.
Portia’s speech from Merchant of Venice: “Drops of Mercy”. The most beautiful Equity laden speech you will every hear. with “Mercy” being another word for equity. (https://yewtu.be/watch?v=DSg601_b4mo)
Read that qoute above again…and again…and again. And ask yourself why that man said that. I dont know if we have been left capable of understanding how big this topic is, nor how sad we should be that they have obscured this court from us.
This is not the first time Equity, as relating to the Bible AND the courts, has been written of. Personally I have several hundred books on the topic. Some books are from several hundred years ago. One, the Bible, is several thousand years old and it sets the definition of Equity in the form of many words that lead back to forming a whole and complete definition of Equity, and ergo the LAW.
What is lawful? what is illegal? Can they make a law over something to restrict your using it if the use of it was illegal to begin with? (getting a drivers license..how does the crown state it owns the road? Or does it own the right to the road, and you have an inherent right FOR THE USE of what the crown has? What is a trust? Hint: Trust Law resides exclusively in the Extraordinary Equity Jurisdiction. It lies in the First head of the equity jurisdiction exclusively)
This being the first installment of a series on Equity, we will keep to a few definitions that may allow one to take an interest in why these writers spoke of “Equity” in such a manner. So to set the stage for further discussions, here are some qoutes about “Equity” from some very esteemed people over the ages till today.
Our first is from the Bible. Equity has many words that aid in defining it: Rightous is one; Justice is another; What is ‘good” is another manner to define equity. That would be what is good for all parties involved. Equity could be seen as cold if used with the “letter of the law” only as in King Solomon did use it when he moved to solve the issue of a babies parentage by cutting the baby in half and each person who claimed to be the parent would be satisfied. Not a great solution, but the other half of what ential the law became present in that decision, as Solomon felt assured that the real mother would not agree to this and he was correct, and the mother who was willing to not kill her child got her child back. Equity likes to show one is willing to give up something before the court using it will award the party what they want. Kinda like “doing unto others as one would do unto yourself” FIRST. We never learn to do that.
So the first example is one of many from the Bible, but we will choose my favorite verse eluding to Equity as we are supposed to understand it. Psalm 98.9:
Psa 98:9 Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
Bear in mind with the plethera of wordings that Equity is analogous with or equal to in the Bible, one needs to know that “righteousness” also means equity in the bible. I will list at the end in the footnotes the partial breadth of the definition of “equity” from the Bible.
This next example is from another who would be known as an “authority” to the court when he is cited, and one of his books is called:
Juridical equity : abridged for the use of studentsby Phelps, Charles E. (Charles Edward), 1833-1908 SECTION 131 PHELPS PAGE 178 https://archive.org/stream/cu31924085500928#page/n217/mode/1up §131.
"equity" in literature. Before making this inquiry, it will be found instructive to determine the exact place and value in standard English literature of the word “equity" itself. For the sake of brevity, it fortunately happens that there may be gathered from the English bible and Shakespeare all that is necessary for that purpose.
In the Old Testament Scriptures the word rendered in the standard English version, "equity" occurs in close connection (noscitur a sociis) with such terms as " righteousness," "justice," "judgment," "wisdom," "truth," and in contest with " iniquity. "
Sometimes the same word is rendered in one version " equity," and in another "uprightness/" or "justice."'
Collation of texts exhibits "equity" in the Bible use as a complex ethical conception, covering that department of morals which inculcates absolute good faith, integrity and impartiality, equality of right in theory, and fairness in practice. Briefly, it stands for justice in the broad sense of the Roman law,- jus suum cuique tribuere—jus being understood in opposition to lex. In the Bible, the word "equity" is invariably used In the same general sense.”
The last example, and there are so many many more, is from one of the most esteemed men that has ever been set as a Judge of the US court system. Judge John Bouvier the writer of the eponomous set of books, “Institutes of American Law”:
“Law is nothing without equity, and equity is everything, even without the law.
Those who perceive what is just and what is unjust only through the eyes of the law, never see it as well as those who behold it with the eyes of equity.
Law may be looked upon, in some manner, as a assistance for those who have a weak perception of right and wrong, in the same way that optical glasses are useful to those who are short sighted, or whose visual organs are deficient.
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.”
John Bouvier, institutes of American Law, vol. 4, 1854. sec Pg 100 sec 3724 Para 5.
The above qoute was broken up into its 4 sentences or parts. Each one puts a large ephesis on how powerful equity is OVER THE law. It actually states very clearly that if you do not see things via “equity eyes”, so as to attain the “true and genuine meaning” of what the “LAW” is saying, you will always be like a child who is shortsighted from not having the proper “perception” to come to the how Equity rules over all other jurisdictions, and how to use it for your and your loved ones benefit.
Equity is known for its “Equity” maxims. There are but a handful of these really compared to about 90 million statutes and codes (legal land laws backed up by the first precendent/time they were used in court for a win). These below would be the more used maxims…there are not many…but using them in conjunctoin allows your matter to be properly fleshed out for the court of equity to see.
2.7Equity acts in personam (i.e. on persons rather than on objects)
2.12Equity will take jurisdiction to avoid a multiplicity of suits
2.17Equity will not allow a statute to be used as a cloak for fraud
2.18Equity will not allow a trust to fail for want of a trustee
Here I include graphics from Phelps’s book above explaining how there are “enabling” maxims and “restrictive” maxims. There is a science if you will. like maths laws, to using these maxims for your benefit.
One can see above how progressives cherry picked the list to get the one maxim they could skew, “Equality is Equity” but they turned it into Equality of people’s “color” or “race” and “sexual orientaion”, and took out that someone really needs to know how to do the job or task they were hired for, and some are not able to learn some things no matter how hard they try.
Why dont we know about this Equity that seems, well, perfect? (yes perfect)
All we ask is for fair courts. Maybe in the near future we will see the end of the “corporate” person and see the collapse of the overlay of this “faux” at law enlargement and constraint of equity we have had happen while was all seemed to sleep.
One last point, as we see the courts stymie cases of election fraud in the “gauntlet” of the US courts systems “pretrial” rules and don’t even allow them to proceed to get evidence on the docket, so case goes “pfft” it seems and dies never getting to trial. That’s the changes the judicature acts and courts acts made in most places that have made it so we all get put into an “at law” pretrial system that is able to stop equity from seeing evidence. This will be fleshed out further in a future installment. I was blessed to be involved with a suit (just in editing docs…not in being in the court room) that just last yr went to Federal Appeal Court and had this very gauntlet used to oust the suit. They do this regularly, and it means one has to be extremely determined to keep going. I will say that none of these suits are ever dismissed “with prejudice” in courts that are of “law and equity”, but the always dismiss them with prejudice in a state that seperates “law” and “equity” jurisdictions because if you are in the correct jurisdiction it will not get tossed but the wrong jurisdiction will tell you not to come back. We think the court just told us our matter was trash and dont come back…when they were actually saying “wrong jurisdiction…further research required”.
Next time we will go over the Judicature acts and what they meant for our courts, in that they enlarged the at law rules but hiding equity jurisdiction and rules, and we find out how Dickens’s novel “Bleak House” was seemingly a political hit piece to draw “business” from equity courts to the (corporate) common law courts. We will also see how the disagreement between Lord Coke and Lord Ellesmere dealt with by King James I would allow for the dominance of Equity Jurisdiction and jurisprudence to this very day.
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FN.
Bible and Equity, just a few examples:
H4339 מֵישָׁר mêyshâr may-shawr'
From H3474; evenness, that is, (figuratively) prosperity or concord; also straightness, that is, (figuratively) rectitude (only in plural with singular sense; often adverbially): - agreement, aright, that are equal, equity, (things that are) right (-eously, things), sweetly, upright (-ly, -ness).
H3474 יָשַׁר yâshar yaw-shar'
A primitive root; to be straight or even; figuratively to be (causatively to make) right, pleasant, prosperous: - direct, fit, seem good (meet), + please (well), be (esteem, go) right (on), bring (look, make, take the) straight (way), be upright (-ly).
And from new testament we have one of many also
Greek 1343 – "dikaiosune" dik-ah-yos-oo-nay comes from 1342 in the N.T., from the greek dictionary meaning - EQUITY of character or act; specifically character, justification: righteousness.
(disclaimer. I am not a lawyer and do not intend to teach law in any way. Equity is contradistinguished from the “Legal” jurisdiction so i cannot ever be impersonating an officer of the court teaching law. Peace, love, and equity for all.)