Equity courts, distinct from courts of law, administer justice based on fairness, moral righteousness, and conscience. Here’s an equity court glossary of commonly used terms, providing a foundation for understanding the nuanced language of equity jurisprudence:

Abatement: The suspension or defeat of a pending action for a reason unrelated to the merits of the claim, such as the death of a party.

Account: An equitable remedy requiring a detailed written statement of money owed, paid, and held.

Ademption: The failure of a specific bequest of property in a will because the property is no longer in the testator’s estate at death.

Adjudication: The legal process of resolving a dispute or deciding a case.

Administration: Management of an estate by an executor, administrator, or trustee.

Affidavit: A voluntary, written statement of facts, confirmed by oath or affirmation before an authorized official.

Amendment: A change made by addition, deletion, or correction to a legal document.

Answer: The defendant’s response to the plaintiff’s complaint, admitting or denying the allegations.

Appeal: A request to a higher court for review of a lower court’s decision.

Appearance: The formal act of a party submitting to a court’s jurisdiction.

Attachment: The legal process of seizing property to secure a judgment or to be sold in satisfaction of a judgment.

Bill: A written statement submitted to a court of equity asking for relief.

Bill of Review: A proceeding in equity to reverse or revise a prior decree.

Bona Fide Purchaser: One who buys something for value without notice of another’s claim to the item or of any defects in the seller’s title.

Cancellation: An equitable remedy to set aside a written instrument on grounds such as fraud or mistake.

Cause of Action: A set of facts sufficient to justify suing to obtain money, property, or the enforcement of a legal right against another party.

Certiorari: A writ issued by a higher court directing a lower court to send up the record in a given case for review.

Cestui Que Trust: One who possesses equitable rights in property, often because another party holds legal title for his or her benefit.

Chancery: A court with jurisdiction in equity, as opposed to common law.

Chattel: An item of tangible movable or immovable property, not including real estate.

Clean Hands Doctrine: The principle that a party cannot seek equitable relief or assert an equitable defense if that party has violated an equitable principle.

Collateral: Property subject to a security interest, mortgage, or other lien.

Comity: The principle that one sovereign nation voluntarily adopts or enforces the laws of another out of deference and good will.

Complaint: The initial pleading that starts a civil action and states the basis for the court’s jurisdiction, the basis for the plaintiff’s claim, and the demand for relief.

Contempt of Court: Any act showing disrespect for the court’s authority, such as refusing to comply with a court order.

Conversion: The wrongful possession or disposition of another’s property as if it were one’s own.

Conveyance: The voluntary transfer of a right or property.

Counterclaim: A claim for relief asserted against an opposing party after the original claim is filed.

Covenant: A formal agreement or promise, usually in a contract or deed.

Creditor: One to whom a debt is owed.

Cross-Claim: A claim asserted between codefendants or coplaintiffs in a case.

Decree: A court’s final judgment that orders relief for one party against another.

Deed: A written instrument that conveys real property from one party to another.

Default: A party’s failure to take a required step in a legal action.

Defendant: A party sued in a civil proceeding or accused in a criminal proceeding.

Demurrer: A pleading stating that although the facts alleged in a complaint may be true, they are insufficient for the plaintiff to state a claim for relief and for the defendant to frame an answer.

Deposition: A witness’s out-of-court testimony that is reduced to writing for later use in court or for discovery purposes.

Discovery: The process of obtaining information and evidence from an opposing party in a lawsuit.

Dismissal: Termination of a lawsuit without further hearing, usually before trial.

Dissolution: The act of ending a marriage or partnership; the termination of a corporation.

Easement: An interest in land owned by another person, consisting of the right to use or control the land for a specific limited purpose.

Eminent Domain: The power of the government to take private property for public use, typically with compensation to the owner.

Enjoin: To legally prohibit or restrain by injunction.

Equitable: Just; consistent with principles of justice and right.

Equity: The branch of jurisprudence that developed alongside common law to remedy its defects and provide a more flexible approach to justice.

Estoppel: A bar that prevents one from asserting a claim or right that contradicts what one has said or done before or what has been legally established as true.

Evidence: Information presented in testimony or documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case in favor of one side or the other.

Execution: Carrying out some act or course of conduct to its completion. The enforcement of a money judgment by seizing and selling the judgment debtor’s property.

Executor: A person named by a testator to carry out the provisions of the testator’s will.

Exhibit: A document, record, or other tangible object formally introduced as evidence in court.

Exoneration: The removal of a burden, charge, responsibility, or duty.

Fiduciary: A person having a legal duty, created by his or her undertaking, to act primarily for another’s benefit in matters connected with the undertaking.

Foreclosure: A legal proceeding to terminate a mortgagor’s interest in property, instituted by the lender either to gain title or to force a sale in order to satisfy the unpaid debt secured by the property.

Fraud: A knowing misrepresentation or concealment of a material fact made to induce another to act to his or her detriment.

Garnishment: A judicial proceeding in which a creditor asks the court to order a third party who is indebted to or is bailee for the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor’s property held by that third party.

Guardian: A person lawfully invested with the power, and charged with the duty, of taking care of and managing the property and rights of a person who, because of age, understanding, or self-control, is considered incapable of administering his or her own affairs.

Hearing: A judicial session, usually open to the public, held for the purpose of deciding issues of fact or of law, sometimes with witnesses testifying.

Hearsay: Traditionally, testimony that is given by a witness who relates not what he or she knows personally, but what others have said, and that is therefore dependent on the credibility of someone other than the witness.

Indemnity: Reimbursement. An undertaking by which one agrees to secure another against an anticipated loss or damage.

Injunction: A court order commanding or preventing an action.

Interpleader: A procedure by which a person holding property claimed by two or more other persons may compel those persons to litigate their claims in court.

Interrogatories: A set or series of written questions drawn up for the purpose of being answered by a party, witness, or other person having information of interest in the case.

Joinder: The uniting of parties or claims in a single lawsuit.

Judgment: A court’s final determination of the rights and obligations of the parties in a case.

Jurisdiction: A government’s general power to exercise authority over all persons and things within its territory. A court’s power to decide a case or issue a decree.

Laches: The equitable doctrine by which a court denies relief to a claimant who has unreasonably delayed in asserting the claim, when that delay has prejudiced the party against whom relief is sought.

Lease: A contract by which a rightful possessor of real property conveys the right to use and occupy the property in exchange for consideration, usually rent.

Legacy: A gift of personal property by will.

Lien: A legal right or interest that a creditor has in another’s property, lasting usually until a debt or duty that it secures is satisfied.

Lis Pendens: A pending lawsuit. A notice, recorded in the chain of title to real property, required or permitted in some jurisdictions to warn all persons that certain property is the subject matter of litigation, and that any interests acquired during the pendency of the suit are subject to its outcome.

Merger: The absorption of one estate or interest into another, greater estate or interest, so that the lesser estate ceases to exist as a separate entity.

Moot: Having no practical significance; hypothetical or academic.

Mortgage: A conveyance of an interest in real property as security for the payment of money or the performance of some other obligation.

Mortmain: The condition of lands or tenements held in perpetuity by an ecclesiastical or other corporation.

Ne Exeat: A writ restraining a person from leaving the jurisdiction; esp., an equitable writ ordering the person to whom it is addressed not to leave the jurisdiction of the court or the state.

Novation: The act of substituting for an old obligation a new one that either replaces an existing obligation with a new obligation or replaces an original party with a new party.

Nuisance: A condition, activity, or situation (such as a loud noise or foul odor) that interferes with the use or enjoyment of property.

Partition: The act of dividing; esp., the division of real property held jointly or in common by two or more persons into individually owned interests.

Perpetuity: The state of continuing forever. In real-property law, the state of being inalienable perpetually or for a period beyond certain prescribed limits.

Plaintiff: The party who brings a civil suit in a court of law.

Pleadings: The formal allegations by the parties to a lawsuit of their respective claims and defenses, with the intended purpose being to provide notice of what is to be expected at trial.

Precedent: A decided case that furnishes a basis for determining later cases involving similar facts or issues.

Probate: The judicial procedure by which a testamentary document is established to be a valid will; the proving of a will to the satisfaction of the court.

Quantum Meruit: The reasonable value of services; damages awarded in an amount considered reasonable to compensate a person who has rendered services in a quasi-contractual relationship.

Quiet Title: A proceeding to establish a plaintiff’s title to land by compelling the adverse claimant to establish a claim or be forever estopped from asserting it.

Quitclaim Deed: A deed that conveys a grantor’s complete interest or claim in certain real property but that neither warrants nor professes that the title is valid.

Realty: A brief term for real property.

Receiver: A disinterested person appointed by a court, or by a corporation or other person, for the protection or collection of property that is the subject of diverse claims.

Recoupment: 1. The getting back or regaining of something, esp. expenses. 2. The withholding, for equitable reasons, of all or part of something that is due.

Redemption: The act or an instance of reclaiming or regaining possession by paying a specific price.

Reformation: An equitable remedy by which a court will modify a written agreement to reflect the actual intent of the parties, usually to correct fraud or mutual mistake in the writing.

Relator: The real party in interest in whose name a state or an attorney general brings a lawsuit.

Remand: The act or an instance of sending something (such as a case, claim, or person) back for further action.

Replevin: An action for the repossession of personal property wrongfully taken or detained by the defendant, whereby the plaintiff gives security for and holds the property until the court decides who owns it.

Res Judicata: An issue that has been definitively settled by judicial decision.

Rescission: A party’s unilateral unmaking of a contract for a legally sufficient reason, such as the other party’s material breach, or a judgment rescinding the contract.

Restitution: The set of remedies associated with that body of law, in which the measure of recovery is usu. based not on the plaintiff’s loss, but on the defendant’s gain.

Resulting Trust: A trust imposed by law when property is transferred under circumstances suggesting that the transferor did not intend for the transferee to have the beneficial interest in the property.

Reversal: The overturning of a lower court’s decision by an appellate court.

Revocation: An annulment, cancellation, or reversal, usu. of an act or power.

Setoff: A defendant’s counterdemand against the plaintiff, arising out of a transaction independent of the plaintiff’s claim.

Specific Performance: An equitable remedy that compels a party to execute a contract according to the precise terms agreed upon or to execute it substantially so that, under the circumstances, justice will be done between the parties.

Stare Decisis: The doctrine of precedent, under which a court must follow earlier judicial decisions when the same points arise again in litigation.

Statute: A law passed by a legislative body.

Statute of Frauds: A statute designed to prevent fraud and perjury by requiring certain contracts to be in writing and signed by the party to be charged.

Statute of Limitations: A statute establishing a time limit for suing in a civil case, based on the date when the claim accrued.

Subpoena: A writ or order commanding a person to appear before a court or other tribunal, subject to a penalty for failing to comply.

Subrogation: The principle under which an insurer that has paid a loss under an insurance policy is entitled to all the rights and remedies belonging to the insured against a third party with respect to any loss covered by the policy.

Suit: Any proceeding by a party or parties against another in a court of law.

Surety: A person who is primarily liable for paying another’s debt or performing another’s obligation.

Testimony: Evidence that a competent witness under oath or affirmation gives at trial or in an affidavit or deposition.

Title: The union of all elements (as ownership, possession, and custody) constituting the legal right to control and dispose of property.

Tort: A civil wrong, other than breach of contract, for which a remedy may be obtained, usually in the form of damages.

Trademark: A word, phrase, logo, or other graphic symbol used by a manufacturer or seller to distinguish its product or products from those of others.

Trespass: An unlawful act committed against the person or property of another; esp., wrongful entry on another’s real property.

Trover: A common-law action for the recovery of damages for the conversion of personal property, the damages generally being measured by the property’s value.

Trust: The right, enforceable solely in equity, to the beneficial enjoyment of property to which another person holds the legal title.

Trustee: One who stands in a fiduciary or confidential relation to another; esp., one who, having legal title to property, holds it in trust for the benefit of another and owes a fiduciary duty to that beneficiary.

Unconscionability: Extreme unfairness.

Undue Influence: The improper use of power or trust in a way that deprives a person of free will and substitutes another’s objective.

Unjust Enrichment: The retention of a benefit conferred by another, without offering compensation, in circumstances where compensation is reasonably expected.

Venue: The proper or a possible place for a lawsuit to proceed, usu. because the place has some connection either with the events that gave rise to the lawsuit or with the plaintiff or defendant.

Verdict: A jury’s finding or decision on the factual issues of a case.

Waiver: The voluntary relinquishment or abandonment (express or implied) of a legal right or advantage.

Warranty: A promise that a proposition of fact is true.

Will: A document by which a person directs his or her estate to be distributed upon death.

Writ: A court’s written order, in the name of a state or other competent legal authority, commanding the addressee to do or refrain from doing some specified act.

This glossary provides a snapshot of the terminology used in the complex and nuanced field of equity law. Understanding these terms is essential for navigating the legal landscape of equity courts.