Equitable remedy

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Equitable remedy

In law, equitable remedies are the remedies developed and granted by the old courts of equity, such as the Court of Chancery

Court of Chancery

The Court of Chancery was one of the court of equity in Courts of the United Kingdom....
in England, and still available today in common law

Common law

Common law refers to law and the corresponding Legal systems of the world developed through legal opinion of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through statute law or Executive ....
jurisdictions. Equity is said to operate on the conscience of the defendant, so an equitable remedy is always directed at a particular person, and his knowledge, state of mind and motives may be relevant to whether a remedy should be granted or not.

Equitable remedies are distinguished from "legal" remedies (which are available to a successful claimant as of right) by the discretion of the court to grant them.

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In law, equitable remedies are the remedies developed and granted by the old courts of equity, such as the Court of Chancery

Court of Chancery

The Court of Chancery was one of the court of equity in Courts of the United Kingdom....
in England, and still available today in common law

Common law

injunction
Injunction

An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order, whereby a party is required to do, or to refrain from doing, certain acts. The party that fails to adhere to the injunction faces civil or criminal penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions for failing to follow the court's order....
specific performance
Specific performance

In the law of Judicial_remedy, an order of specific performance is an order of the court which requires a party to perform a specific act, usually what is stated in a contract....
Account of profits
Account of profits

An account of profits is a type of equitable remedy most commonly used in cases of breach of fiduciary duty. It is an action taken against a defendant to recover the profits taken as a result of the breach of duty, in order to prevent unjust enrichment....
rescission
Rescission

In contract law, rescission has been defined as the unmaking of a contract between the parties. Rescission is the unwinding of a transaction....
declaratory relief
Declaratory relief

Declaratory relief is a judge's determination of the parties' rights under a contract or a statute, often requested in a lawsuit over a contract....
rectification
Rectification (law)

Rectification is a remedy whereby a court orders a change in a written document to reflect what it ought to have said in the first place. It is an equitable remedy, which means the circumstances where it can be applied are limited....
estoppel
Estoppel

Estoppel is a law doctrine at common law, where a party is barred from claiming or denying an argument on an equitable ground. Estoppel complements the requirement of consideration in contract law....
certain proprietary remedies, such as constructive trusts or tracing
Tracing (law)

In law, tracing is a process by which a claimant demonstrates what has happened to his/her property, identifies its proceeds and those persons who have handled or received them, and asks the court to award a proprietary claim against the property, or an asset substituted for the original property or its proceeds....
subrogation
Subrogation

Subrogation is the legal technique under the common law by which one party, commonly an insurer of another party , steps into X's shoes, so as to have the benefit of X's rights and remedies against a third party such as a defendant ....
in very specific circumstances, an equitable lien
Security interest

A security interest is a property interest created by agreement or by operation of law over assets to secure the performance of an obligation, usually the payment of a debt....

The two main equitable remedies are injunctions and specific performance

Specific performance

In the law of Judicial_remedy, an order of specific performance is an order of the court which requires a party to perform a specific act, usually what is stated in a contract....
, and in casual legal parlance references to equitable remedies are often expressed as referring to those two remedies alone. Injunctions may be mandatory (requiring a person to do something) or prohibitory (stopping them doing something). Specific performance requires a party to perform a contract, for example by transferring a piece of land to the claimant.

An account of profits

Account of profits

An account of profits is a type of equitable remedy most commonly used in cases of breach of fiduciary duty. It is an action taken against a defendant to recover the profits taken as a result of the breach of duty, in order to prevent unjust enrichment....
is usually ordered where payment of damages would still leave the wrongdoer unjustly enriched

Unjust enrichment

Unjust enrichment is a legal term denoting a particular type of Causality in which one party is unjustly enriched at the expense of another, and an obligation to make restitution arises, regardless of liability for wrongdoing....
at the expense of the wronged party. However, orders for an account are not normally available as of right, and only arise in certain circumstances.

Rescission and rectification are remedies in relation to contract

Contract

A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do, or refrain from doing, an act which is enforceable in a court of law. It is a binding legal agreement....
s (or, exceptionally, deed

Deed

A deed is a legal instrument used to grant a right. Deeds are part of the broader category of documents under seal. Deeds can be described as contract-like, as they require the mutual agreement of more than one person....
s) which may become available.

Constructive trusts and tracing remedies are usually used where the claimant asserts that property has been wrongly appropriated from them, and then either (i) the property has increased in value, and thus they should have an interest in the increase in value which occurred at their expense, or (ii) the property has been transferred by the wrongdoer to an innocent third party, and the original owner should be able to claim a right to the property as against the innocent third party.

Equitable liens normally only arise in very specific factual circumstances, such as unpaid vendor's lien.

Equitable principles can also limit the granting of equitable remedies. This includes "he who comes to equity must come with clean hands"

Unclean hands

Unclean hands, sometimes clean hands doctrine or dirty hands doctrine is an legal defense in which the defendant argues that the plaintiff is not entitled to obtain an equitable remedy on account of the fact that the plaintiff is acting Business ethics or has acted in bad faith with respect to the subject of the complaint?that is,...
(ie the court will not assist a claimant who is himself in the wrong or acting for improper motives), laches

Laches (equity)

Laches , , is an Equity defense, or doctrine. The person invoking laches is asserting that an opposing party has "slept on its rights", and that, as a result of this delay, that other party is no longer entitled to its original claim....
(equitable remedies will not be granted if the claimant has delayed unduly in seeking them), "equity will not assist a volunteer" (meaning that a person cannot litigate against a settlor without providing the appropriate consideration e.g. Money) and that equitable remedies will not normally be granted where damages

Damages

In law, damages refer to the money paid or awarded to a claimant , pursuer or plaintiff following a successful claim in a lawsuit....
would be an adequate remedy. The most important limitation relating to equitable remedies is that an equitable remedy will not lie against a bona fide purchaser for value without notice.

Interestingly, damages can also be awarded in "equity" as opposed to "at law", and in some legal systems, by historical accident, interest on damages can be awarded on a compound basis only on equitable damages, but not on damages awarded at law. However, most jurisdictions either have ended this anachronism, or evinced an intention to do so, by modernising legislation.

Equitable remedy

See also

Footnotes