Section 11 Equity Acts in Personam, Not in Rem

• Library: Remedies 2006

In the absence of statutes giving in rem jurisdiction, the jurisdiction of an equity court is based on the court obtaining control over a party. George L. Clark, Equity-Missouri Edition § 9 (1920).

In the infancy of the court of chancery,... in order to avoid a direct collision with the law and with the judgments of law courts, [chancellors] adopted the principle that their own remedies and decree should operate in personam upon defendants, and not in rem. . . . A decree of chancery spoke in terms of...