Equity-of-the-Statute Rule Law and Legal Definition
Equity of the statute rule is a rule of statutory construction which says a statute should be interpreted according to the legislators' purpose and intent, even if this interpretation goes beyond the literal meaning of the text. This rule is not applied much. It is a general principle of statutory construction that statutes are to be read sensibly rather than literally and the controlling legislative intent is to be presumed as consonant to reason and good discretion.
The 'equity of the statute' rule does not, when properly applied, substitute the judicial for the legislative will, but rather by considering all the material elements reaches the result probably intended by the draftsman had he anticipated the situation at hand. [Monmouth County Div. of Social Services on Behalf of Div. of Youth and Family Services v. C.R., 316 N.J. Super. 600, 609 (Ch.Div. 1998)]
