BIL

Definition

A bill is a formal written pleading or petition addressed to a court of equity, by which a plaintiff (the complainant) initiates a suit in chancery and sets out the grounds upon which equitable relief is sought. It states the facts of the complainant's case, identifies the defendants, and prays for the specific relief — whether an injunction, an accounting, specific performance, or other equitable remedy — that the court is asked to grant. The bill is the foundational document of equity procedure. It corresponds roughly to the complaint or declaration in courts of common law, but it is more elaborate in structure, typically including a narrative statement of facts, charging clauses, an interrogating section (putting questions to the defendant), and a prayer for relief.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Abbreviation of "billion." Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A formal statement in writing; a draft of a law presented to a legislature; a written statement of particulars; a bank note; a printed advertisement. The gap matters: In ordinary usage, "bill" is a broad and context-dependent word — a piece of currency, a legislative proposal, an invoice. In legal research, particularly in historical equity practice, "bill" has a precise procedural meaning: the initiating pleading in a court of chancery. Encountering "bill" in a historical legal source without that anchor can mislead a researcher into thinking the document is legislative or commercial when it is in fact the opening salvo of equitable litigation.

Common Confusion

"Bill" is often conflated with "petition" in historical sources. While both are addressed to a court and seek relief, a bill in equity is the formal pleading that opens adversarial chancery proceedings and requires an answer from the defendant; a petition is typically addressed to the court's discretion on collateral or procedural matters and may not require a formal adversarial response. The terms were sometimes used loosely and interchangeably in older practice, which can create ambiguity in historical records. "Bill" should also be distinguished from a "bill of exceptions" — a separate procedural device used to preserve objections made during a trial for appellate review — and from a "bill of indictment," the instrument by which a grand jury charges a criminal defendant. The word carries distinct technical meanings in equity pleading, criminal procedure, and appellate practice, and context is essential.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES Bills in equity were historically classified by function: Original bill: The standard bill initiating a new suit between parties not previously before the court. The most common form. Bill of review: Filed to obtain re-examination of a decree already made, on grounds of error apparent on the face of the record or newly discovered evidence. Supplemental bill: Filed to bring before the court new facts or parties arising after the original bill was filed, in continuation of the same suit. Bill of interpleader: Filed by a stakeholder holding property or funds claimed by two or more competing parties, asking the court to determine which claimant is entitled and to protect the stakeholder from multiple liability. Bill quia timet: Filed to prevent a threatened future injury, analogous to a modern anticipatory or preventive injunction. Ancillary bills (including bills of revivor, bills in the nature of bills of review, and cross-bills): Various procedural instruments filed in connection with pending or concluded suits.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers working with pre-merger equity records — particularly English Chancery records, early American chancery proceedings, and state equity courts operating before the adoption of merged civil procedure codes — will encounter "bill" as the primary term for what modern practice calls a complaint. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (adopted 1938) and analogous state reforms abolished the formal distinction between law and equity pleading, replacing the bill with the unified complaint. Historical sources predating those reforms use "bill" in its technical equity sense throughout. The Burrill excerpt signals a key structural feature: the bill was the vehicle through which the complainant defined the court's jurisdiction and framed the relief available. Because equity courts had no general jurisdiction and could only act where the common law was inadequate, the drafting of the bill — particularly its charging clauses and prayer for relief — was outcome-determinative in a way that modern pleading is not. Researchers should also watch for the bill's interrogating function. In traditional equity practice, the bill put specific questions to the defendant, who was required to answer under oath. This made the bill simultaneously a pleading and a discovery instrument — a duality that has no precise modern equivalent and that can confuse researchers expecting the clean separation of pleading and discovery familiar from post-merger practice. Jurisdictional variation matters here: some American states retained separate equity courts and equity pleading practice well into the twentieth century. Delaware's Court of Chancery, for example, preserved elements of traditional equity procedure long after most jurisdictions merged. Research in those jurisdictions may require fluency in bill practice even for relatively modern materials.

Historical Dictionary Support

Burrill's Law Dictionary treats the bill as the "usual mode of instituting a suit in chancery," emphasizing that it serves both as the complainant's narrative of entitlement and as the formal vehicle for invoking equitable jurisdiction. Burrill's description of the bill being "engrossed and tendered to the judge" during proceedings reflects a practice — associated with bills of exceptions rather than original bills — that illustrates the broader procedural ecosystem in which "bill" operated across multiple distinct contexts. The partial entry in the source material points toward the bill of exceptions, underscoring that historical dictionaries grouped these instruments under a single headword, requiring careful reading to determine which type of bill is under discussion. Older equity treatises — Mitford's Pleadings in Chancery and Story's Commentaries on Equity Pleadings are the standard authorities — elaborate the formal requirements of the bill in considerable detail. Historical dictionaries generally agree on the core definition but vary in how fully they distinguish the subtypes; researchers relying solely on dictionary definitions for procedural guidance should supplement with the primary treatise literature.

Jurisdictional Note

In federal courts and most state courts, the bill as a distinct pleading form was abolished with the adoption of code or rules-based pleading. Delaware and a small number of other states with functioning chancery courts retain elements of equity pleading that make familiarity with bill practice directly relevant to live practice and research. English Chancery procedure, from which American equity practice derived, used the bill continuously from the medieval period through the Judicature Acts of 1873–75.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Equity Pleading; Bill in Chancery; Courts of Equity

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