COMING INTO EQUITY WITH CLEAN HANDS

Authors

Zechariah Chafee, Jr., Harvard UniversityFollow

Abstract

The preceding article proposed to examine eighteen differing groups of cases which are commonly supposed to present the clean hands doctrine as a maxim of equity, and then proceeded to consider eight such groups. Ten groups still require attention. The first five of those already considered fell within the exclusive jurisdiction of equity, and the next three within the concurrent jurisdiction, which is continued for a considerable part of the present article. After discussing suits for specific performance of unfair contracts and of illegal contracts, I dealt with miscellaneous tort suits by a person charged with crime. We now turn to several important types of injunction suits against specific torts.

In this article, as in its predecessor, it is desirable to keep two questions in mind: First, is the plaintiff's misconduct more detrimental to him in equity than it would be if he were suing for damages? Second, how much is the supposed general principle of unclean hands shaped by the rules and policies of this particular group of cases, so that it is transformed into a substantive defense for a specific wrong?

Recommended Citation

Zechariah Chafee, Jr., COMING INTO EQUITY WITH CLEAN HANDS, 47 Mich. L. Rev. 1065 (1949).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol47/iss8/5