The Green Bag
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right, the holder of it the basis right
holder, and the person having the claim the equitable claimant. The words “trust,” “trustee” and "cestui quetrust” should be reserved for a special class of equities.
All trusts are equities, but
not all equities are trusts. The rules relating to equities in
would have to be cut up, and their separate parts discussed invarious places. For practical convenience it might be
better to have a fourth subdivision of Part Second, and treat each of those
subjects here in its entirety. Commercial Law would be a nearly appropriate heading for such a subdivision.
general should be first stated, then those relating specially to trusts and to par
PART THIRD
ticular kinds of equities and of trusts. WRONGS
All equities are rights in personam, availing only inter partes, though in
certain cases a successor to the basis right holder may take right subject to the equity. This applies even to those equities that are called equitable property, which should be discussed here. Equities are either obligations, where the basis right holder has corresponding duties, or equitable liens, where there is no corresponding duty, though the lien may have been given to secure the
1.
Wrongs in General.
The duties
and rights whose violations make up wrongs, which constitute the greater part of what is now called the law of torts, will have been discussed in the
preceding parts.
Here should fall such
matters as the following: definition of wrong; necessity of both a breach of duty and a violation of right; when a wrong is complete; necessity that con
sequences should be actual and proxi mate;
correspondence of duties and
performance of some collateral duty. An equitable obligation differs from a legal one in being not only a personal claim against the obligor but also a claim on a specific basis right. An equity, however, is not directly 9. claim on a thing, like a legal property right, but on the right of which the thing is
rights (what duties correspond in gene-re to each right will have been shown under Duties, but the rules as to the
the subject and on the thing.
the consolidation of wrongs, in what
IV.
so
only
indirectly
necessity of correspondence, and as to correspondence in specie, fall here); the
identity of wrongs, whether a given group of conduct and consequences make one wrong or more than one; cases several distinct wrongs can for
There are certain subjects, such
the purpose of an action be consolidated
as agency, partnership, negotiable in
and treated as one, which
struments, insurance, shipping, carriers,
may and even sometimes must be done; the place of wrongs, where a wrong is deemed to have been committed. Torts. Our law has divided wrongs which are cognizable in courts of law
etc., which include matters that belong
in various places in an arrangement of the law. Sometimes there are peculiar juristic acts to be considered, sometimes
peculiar obligations, sometimes rights in rem and corresponding duties, some
sometimes
into torts and breaches of contract.
rules of responsibility for others’ con
If the fiction of implied or quasi con tracts is abandoned, that division is not exhaustive. The distinction between
duct.
If a rigidly theoretical arrange
torts and other wrongs is not based on
ment
were
any clear principle.
times special kinds of things or special
followed,
those
subjects
It grew out of the
