suits in equity
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 287 U.S. 92 - Schoenthal v. Irving Trust Co. · 1932Most cited · 500 citing opinions
in absence of a clear showing that a court of law lacks capacity to give the relief which the allegations show plaintiff entitled to have, a suit in equity cannot be maintained.
How often courts cite the cases defining “suits in equity”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “suits in equity” — 737 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 1932–1935
The phrase 'suits in equity' has been understood to refer to suits in which relief is sought according to the principles applied by the English Court of Chancery before 1789, as they have been developed in the federal courts.