Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

Equitable asset

an asset that is subject to payment only in a court of equity.

Equitable assignment

an assignment that, although not legally valid, will be recognized and enforced in equity - for example, an assignment of a chose in action or of future acquisitions of the assignor. ( to accomplish an "equitable assignment," there must be an absolute appropriation by the assignor of the debt or fund sought to be assigned. Fly

action in equity. An action that seeks equitable relief, such as an injunction or specific performance, as opposed to damages.

equitable

adj. 1. Just; conformable to principles of justice and right. 2. Existing in equity; available or sustainable by an action in equity, or under the rules and principles of equity.

equitable abstention

A federal courts r fraining from interfering with a state admin- istrative agency's decision on a local matter when the aggrieved party has adequate relief in the state courts.

equitable action

See action in equity under ACTION.

equitable adoption

See adoption by estoppel under ADOPTION (1).

equitable asset

See ASSET.

equitable assignment

See ASSIGNMENT (2).

equitable construction

See liberal construc tion under CONSTRUCTION.

equitable conversion

The act of treating real property as personal property, or vice versa, in certain circumstances. ( Courts usu. apply the doctrine of equitable conversion to recognize the transfer of land when a party dies after the signing of an agreement to sell real property but before the transfer of title. Equitable conversion is based on the maxim that equity regards as done that which ought to be done.

equitable defense

A defense formerly available only in a court of equity but now maintainable in a court of law. ( Examples include mistake, fraud, illegality, and failure of consideration.

equitable distribution

Family law. The division of marital property by a court in a divorce proceeding, under statutory guidelines that provide for a fair, but not necessarily equal, allocation of the property between the spouses. ( The court can take into account a variety of factors, including the relative earning capacity of the spouses and (in a state that does not allow for no-fault divorce) the fault of either of the spouses. Equitable distribution is applied in 41 states (i.e., all the states that do not have a community-property system). - Also termed equitable division.

equitable doctrine of approximation

See DOCTRINE OF APPROXIMATION. equitable easement See EASEMENT.

equitable easement

1. An implied easement created by equity when adjacent lands have been created out of a larger tract. ( Such an easement is usu. created to allow implied privileges to continue. 2. See restrictive covenant (1) under COVENANT (4).

equitable ejectment

See EJECTMENT.

equitable election

See ELECTION (2).

equitable estate

An estate recognized in equity, such as a trust beneficiary's interest. See EQUITY.

equitable estoppel

See ESTOPPEL.

equitable foreclosure

A foreclosure method in which the court orders the property sold, and the proceeds are applied first to pay the costs of the suit and sale and then to the mortgage debt. ( Any surplus is paid to the mortgagor.

equitable fraud

See constructive fraud under FRAUD.

equitable interest

An interest held by virtue of an equitable title or claimed on equitable grounds, such as the interest held by a trust beneficiary.

equitable lien

See LIEN.

equitable life tenant

A life tenant not automatically entitled to possession but who makes an election allowed by law to a person of that status - such as a spouse - and to whom a court will normally grant possession if security or an undertaking is given.

equitable mortgage

See MORTGAGE.

equitable owner

See beneficial owner (1).

equitable recoupment

Tax. 1. A doctrine allowing a taxpayer to offset previously overpaid taxes against current taxes due, even though the taxpayer is time-barred from claiming a refund on the previous taxes. 2. A doctrine allowing the government to offset taxes previously uncollected from a taxpayer against the taxpayer's current claim for a refund, even though the government is time-barred from collecting the previous taxes. 0 In both senses, this type of recoupment can be asserted only if the statute of limitations has created an inequitable result. See RECOUPMENT (2).

equitable remedy

A nonmonetary remedy, such as an injunction or specific performance, obtained when monetary damages cannot adequately redress the injury. See IRREPARABLEINJURY RULE.

equitable rescission

See RESCISSION

equitable right

A right cognizable within a court of equity. ( If a legal right and an equitable right conflict, the legal right ordinarily prevails over and destroys the equitable right even if the legal right arose after the equitable right. With the merger of law and equity in federal and most state courts, the procedural differences between legal and equitable rights have been largely abolished. Cf. legal right.

equitable right to setoff

The right to cancel cross-demands, usu. used by a bank to take from a customer's deposit accounts the amount equal to the customer's debts that have matured and that are owed to that bank. See SETOFF.

equitable seisin

See seisin in law.

equitable servitude

See restrictive covenant under COVENANT (4).

equitable subrogation

See legal subrogation under SUBROGATION.

equitable title

A title that indicates a beneficial interest in property and that gives the holder the right to acquire formal legal title. Cf. legal title.

equitable tolling

The doctrine that the statute of limitations will not bar a claim if the plaintiff, despite diligent efforts, did not discover the injury until after the limitations period had expired. ( Equitable tolling does not require misconduct by the defendant.

equitable waste

An abuse of the privilege of nonimpeachability for waste at common law, for which equity will restrain the commission of willful, destructive, malicious, or extravagant waste; esp., waste caused by a life tenant who, although ordinarily not responsible for permissive waste, flagrantly damages or destroys the property. "A life tenant with the benefit of an express exemption from liability for voluntary waste will nevertheless be restrained in equity from committing acts of flagrant destruction to the premises; hence the (seemingly paradoxical) term, equitable waste'. A life tenant who has engaged in, or who threatens to engage in, reprehensible acts of voluntary waste will not be permitted unconscientiously to shield behind his legal right to commit waste to the detriment of those next entitled to en

equitable-adjustment theory

The doctrine that in settling a federal contract dispute, the contracting officer should make a fair adjustment within a reasonable time before the contractor has to settle with its subcontractors, suppliers, and other creditors.

equitable-benefit doctrine

Bankruptcy. The principle that allows a bankruptcy court to grant preferred status to claims for service rendered by persons other than bankruptcy officers, to the extent that the service benefited the estate, when the person filing the claim acted primarily for the benefit of the estate as a whole.

equitable-fund doctrine

See COMMON-FUND DOCTRINE.

equitable-recoupment doctrine

A principle that diminishes a party's right to recover a debt to the extent that the party holds money or property of the debtor to which the party has no right. ( This doctrine is ordinarily a defensive remedy going only to mitigation of damages. The doctrine is sometimes applied so that a claim for a tax refund that is barred by limitations may nonetheless be recouped against a tax claim of the government. equitable relief See equitable remedy under REMEDY.

equitable-restraint doctrine

See Younger abstention (1) under ABSTENTION. equitable reversion See REVERSION.

fair-and-equitable requirement

Bankruptcy. A Bankruptcy Code standard requiring a forced, nonconsensual Chapter 11 plan (a "cramdown" plan) to provide adequately for each class of interests that has not accepted the plan. ( In determining whether a cramdown plan is fair and equitable and thus can be confirmed, a bankruptcy court must apply the Code's detailed statutory criteria, consider the plan as a whole, and weigh all the circumstances surrounding the treatment of each impaired class of interests. In addition to the fairand-equitable requirement, the Chapter 11 cramdown plan must (1) be accepted by at least one impaired class of claims, and (2) not discriminate unfairly among impaired classes that have not accepted the plan. 11 USCA § 1129(b). See CRAMDOWN.

inequitable

adj. Not fair; opposed to principles of equity <an inequitable ruling>.

qui personal property that lasts for the life of the holder of the estate and that is equitable as opposed to legal in its creation. ( An example is a life estate held by a trust beneficiary. equitabl

See LIFE TENANT.