COURT OF CHANCERY

A court having the jurisdiction of a chancellor; a court administering equity and proceeding according to the forms and principles of equity. In England prior to the judicature acts, the style of the court possessing the largest equitable powers and jurisdiction was the “high court of chancery.” In some of the United States, the title “court of chancery” is applied to a court possessing general equity powers, distinct from the courts of common law. Parmeter v. Bourne, 8 Wash. 45, 35 Pac 586. The terms “equity” and “chancery,” “court of equity” and “court of chancery,’1 are constantly used as synonymous in the United States. It is presumed that this custom arises from the circumstance that the equity jurisdiction which is exercised by the courts of the various states is assimilated to that possessed by the English courts of chancery. Indeed, in some of the states it is made identical therewith by statute, so far as conformable to our institutions; Bouvier.