• If a legal right and an equitable right conflict, the legal right ordinarily prevails over and destroys the equitable right even if the legal right arose after the equitable right. With the merger of law and equity in federal and most state courts, the procedural differences between legal and equitable rights have been largely abolished. Cf. legal right. [Cases: Equity 3. C.J.S. Equity §§ 7, 11–16, 36–37.]
equitable right
A right cognizable within a court of equity.