EQUITABLE ASSIGNMENT. A transfer of the beneficial interest in property, real or persona], or of a claim or demand, the legal title to which remains vested in the transferror. It is effected by any transaction, as a defective legal assignment or even a mere agreement, whereby the owner of such property seeks to assign his interest therein to another, and it may operate even to vest in another the substantial control over property which is not assignable under the technical rules of the common law. The equitable mortgage (q.v.) is an illustration of the former, and the transfer of a right of action is a char acteristic example of the latter.
A formal deed is necessary to the creation or legal transfer of an interest in land, and a delivery of a chattel is requisite to vest the title thereto in the transferee: but the courts of equity will protect the interests of such a grantee who has parted with a valuable consideration in reliance upon it, even where the strict legal formalities have been omitted. This it does by compelling the execution of a valid instrument of conveyance or by vesting in the grantee the rights and privileges of an owner. In the same way,
the attempted transfer of property not at the time in existence, or not yet acquired by the vendor or mortgagor, is regarded in equity as a valid assignment of the transferror's future in terest therein, which becomes complete upon his subsequent acquisition of the title. See ESTOP Equity will also interfere to protect the as signee of a chose in action (q.v.)..uel permit him to prosecute the action for his own benefit, hut in the name of his assignor, who at common law was still considered the owner of the claim and the rightful party in interest. This awkward de vice for securing the assignability of rights of action is still employed in many of the United States, though it has in others been rendered un neeessary by statutory provisions rendering such rights freely assignable at law.
An equitable assignee takes the assigned prop erty as it is, subject to all claims, set-oils, or liens, whether legal or equitable, to which it is subject at the time of the transfer. See EQUITY; Eut•ItABLE ESTATE.