1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Laches

LACHES (from Anglo-French lachesse, negligence, from lasche, modern lâche, unloosed, slack), a term for slackness or negligence, used particularly in law to signify negligence on the part of a person in doing that which he is by law bound to do, or unreasonable lapse of time in asserting a right, seeking relief, or claiming a privilege. Laches is frequently a bar to a remedy which might have been had if prosecuted in proper time. Statutes of limitation specify the time within which various classes of actions may be brought. Apart from statutes of limitation courts of equity will often refuse relief to those who have allowed unreasonable time to elapse in seeking it, on the principle vigilantibus ac non dormientibus jura subveniunt.