Riggs v Palmer 1889
NY Appellate Court
• Facts of case
• Majority decision against
Elmer’s inheriting; opinion by
Justice Earl
• Dissent by Justice Gray
Justice Earl’s (Majority) Opinion
• Strict adherence to language of
inheritance statue would require
deciding in Elmer’s favour
• But, Judges must do an Equitable
Construction in light of Legislative
Intention
• Canon of Construction: whatever
is within the intention of the
lawmakers is within the statute, and,
the letter of the statute includes only
what was within the intention of the
legislature
• Equitable construction (quoting
Blackstone): “if there arise out of
[statutes] collaterally any absurd
consequences manifestly
contradictory to common
reason, they are with regard to those
collateral consequences void.”
• In this case the legislature would
have intended law be read in the light
of common reason
• Fundamental Maxims of Common
Law restrict statutory directives
Common Law Maxims are:
 Universal to all legal systems
 Required by the demands of
public policy
 Always authoritative over
particular statutes

Use is supported by precedent
Relevant maxims in Riggs include:
 “No one shall be permitted
to profit by his own fraud, or to take
advantage of his own wrong, or to
found any claim upon his own
iniquity, or to acquire property by his
own crime.”
 Require court to deny Elmer the
estate
Gray’s Dissent
 Equitable Construction should not
be used
 EC would deny Elmer’s
inheritance
 But, the content of testamentary
laws is solely within jurisdiction of
the legislature
 Courts are “bound by the rigid
rules of law, which have been
established by the legislature, and
within the limits of which the
determination of this question is
confined.”
 No way of knowing whether
Grandfather would have changed
his will
 Depriving Elmer of his property
amounts to a second punishment
for his murderous act, above and
beyond the sentence he is
already serving