Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

bill of peace.

An equitable bill filed by one who is threatened with multiple suits involving the same right, or with recurrent suits on the same right, asking the court to determine the question once and for all, and to enjoin the plaintiffs from proceeding with the threatened litigation. 0 One situation involves many persons having a common claim but threatening to bring separate suits; another involves one person bringing a second action on the same claim. "By a bill of peace we are to understand a bill brought by a person to establish and perpetuate a right which he claims, and which, from its nature, may be controverted by different persons, at different times, and bY different actions; or, where separate attempts have already been unsuccessfully made to overthrow the same right, and justice requires that the party should be quieted in the right, if it is already sufficiently established; or if it should be sufficiently established under the direction of the court. The obvious design of such a bill is to procure repose from perpetual litigation, and therefore, it is justly called a bill of peace." Joseph Story, Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence § 853, at 567 (W.E. Grigsby ed., 1st English ed. 1884).