That which is according to law. It is used in opposition to equitable, as the legal estate is, in the trustee, the equitable estate in the cestui que trust. Vide Powell on Mortg. Index, h. t. 2. The party who has the legal title, has alone the right to seek a remedy for a wrong to his estate, in a court of law, though he may have no beneficial interest in it. The equitable owner, is he who has not the legal estate, but is entitled to the beneficial interest. 3. The person who holds the legal estate for the benefit of another, is called a trustee; he who has the beneficiary interest and does not hold the legal title, is called the beneficiary, or more technically, the cestui que trust. 4. When the trustee has a claim, he must enforce his right in a court of equity, for he cannot sue any one at law, in his own name.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
1. Conforming to the law; according to law; required or permitted by law; not forbidden or discountenanced by law; good and effectual in law. 2. Proper or sufficient to be recognized by the law; cognizable in the courts; competent or adequate to fulfill the requirements of the law. 3. Cognizable in courts of law, as distinguished from courts of equity; construed or governed by the rules and prinqfples of law, in contradistinction to rules of equity. 4. Posited by the courts as the inference or Imputation of the law, as a matter of construction, rather than established by actual proof; e.g. legal malice. See Lawful. “Heirs,” “Holiday,” “Incapacity,” “Interest,’1 “Irregularity,” “Malice,” “Memory,” “Mortgage,” “Negligence,” “Notice,” “Proceedings,” “Process,” “Relevancy,” “Remedy,” “Representative,” “Reversion,” “Subrogation,” and “Tender,” see those titles.