Equitable Assets

Such assets as are Chargeable with the payment of debts or legacies iu equity, and which do not fall under the description of legal assets. Those portions of the property which by the ordinary rules of law are exempt from debts, but which the testator has voluntarily charged as assets, or which, being non-existent at law, have been created in equity.

Ad. Eq. 254.

They are so called because they can be reached only by the aid and instrumentality of a court of equity, and because their distribution is governed by a different rule from that which governs the distribution of legal assets.

2 Fonb. Eq. b. 4, pt 2, c.

2, § 1, and notes; 2 Vera. 703; YVilles 523; 3 Woodd. Lect 4S6; Story, Eq. Jur. § 552. The doctrine of equitable assets has been much restricted in the United States generally, and has lost its Importance in England since the act of ls70, providing that simple contract and specialty creditors are, in future, payable pari passu out of boil, and equitable assets; Bisph. Eq. S 531; Benson v. Le Roy, 4 Johns. Ch. (N. Y.) 651: uackhouse v. Patton, 5 Pet. (U. S.) 100, 8 L. Ed. S2; Black v. Scott, 2 Brock. Caa No. 1,404; Hopkins v. Morgan's Kx'r.

3 Dana (Ky.) 18; Speed's Ex'r v. Nelson's Ex'r, 8 B. Monr. (Ky.) 499; Henderson v. Burton's Kx'r, 38 N. C. 259.