Section 23-2-90. Legal and equitable assets defined; rules of distribution

   (a) Assets are either legal or equitable. Legal assets are such as may be reached by the ordinary process of law. Equitable assets are such as can be reached only through the intervention of equity.

(b) Legal assets, when properly before the court, shall be distributed according to legal liens and priorities. Equitable assets shall be distributed according to justice and right in the particular case, the general rule being that equality is equity.

(c) Sometimes assets are partly legal and partly equitable. In such cases, while the above rule shall be adhered to as to the legal assets, equity shall so administer the equitable assets as to produce general equality.

Orig. Code 1863, §§ 3073, 3074; Code 1868, §§ 3085, 3086; Code 1873, §§ 3142, 3143; Code 1882, §§ 3142, 3143; Civil Code 1895, §§ 3997, 3998; Civil Code 1910, §§ 4594, 4595; Code 1933, §§ 37-401, 37-402.