218 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
(ii) The Chancellor distinctly recognized the fact that the feoffee was the owner of the land and had a legal right but what he said to the feoffee was this :—
“You have the legal right, I do not take it away from you but I will not permit you to exercise that legal right in such a way as to infringe the understanding on which the feoffor made the feoffment.”
(iii) The Chancery in assuming jurisdiction over the use left untouched and inviolate the legal right of owner at Common Law. It exercised no direct control over the land. It only regulated the mode and manner of the legal right by imposing upon the owner of the legal right an obligation to observe the condition. The legal owner retained his legal right to own and to possess the land. The Chancellor gave the feoffor an equitable right to demand observance of the conditions of feoffment.
This is the explanation of that difference between a legal right and an equitable right according to which while one legal right destroys another legal, either partially or wholly, an equitable right does not destroy a legal right.
This is also the explanation of the proposition enunciated by Strahan in Article 11, namely, that a legal right or interest issues outflows out of the property itself while equitable right or interest issues or flows out of the legal interest and not out of the property.
This is so because the Chancellor did not recognize the right of the equitable owner to obtain possession of property. That right he retained in the legal owner. What he gave to the equitable owner was the right to impose a duty upon the conduct of the legal owner and he did not give him the right to claim the property itself.
Illustration: (1918). 2K.B. (Ir.) 353—Graham vs. Mcllwaine.
- The consequences that follow from this fact may be noted :—
(1) Because an equitable right issues out of a legal right and not out of the property :
(i) It cannot be greater than the legal estate out of which it issues.
Illustration :
Land conveyed to A for the use of B and his heirs. A is the legal owner of the land. B is the equitable owner.