Verdi v. Price

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Heher, J.

Equitable jurisdiction over suits for the recovery of the amount due on lost bonds and other sealed instruments was originally grounded in the utter lack of a remedy at law, since profert of the instrument was requisite in an action at law thereon, and also in the faculty of equity to decree the provision of indemnity against loss to the defendant. And no action was maintainable at law upon a lost unsealed instrument, whether negotiable or nonnegotiable. The need for such indemnity seems also to have been the ground for equitable interposition…