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Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Edition (1856)

EQUALITY. Possessing the same rights, and being liable to the same duties.
See 1 Toull. No. l70, 193, Int.
2. Persons are all equal before the law, whatever adventitious
advantages some may possess over others. All persons are protected by the
law, and obedience to it is required from all.
3. Judges in court, while exercising their functions, are all upon an
equality, it being a rule that inter pares non est potestas; a judge cannot,
therefore, punish another judge of the same court for using any expression
in court, although the words used might have been a contempt in any other
person. Bac. Ab., Of the court of sessions, of justices of the peace.
4. In contracts the law presumes the parties act upon a perfect
equality; when, therefore, one party uses any fraud or deceit to destroy
this equality, the party grieved may avoid the contract. In case of a grant
to two or more persons jointly, without designating what each takes, they
are presumed to take in equal proportion. 4 Day, 395.
5. It is a maxim, that when the equity of the parties is equal, the law
must prevail. 3 Call, R. 259. And that, as between different creditors,
equality is equity. 4 Bouv. Inst. n. 3725; 1 Page, R. 181. See Kames on Eq.
75. Vide Deceit; Fraud.