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![handle is hein.slavery/ussccases0390 and id is 1 raw text is: MULLIGAN V, CORBINS.
Statement of the case.
that the legislatuie intended exceptions to its language,
which would avoid results of this character. The reason of
the law in such cases should prevail over its letter.
The common sense of man approves the judgment men-
tioned by Puffendorf, that the Bolognian law which enacted,
that whoever drew blood in the streets should be punished
with the utmost severity, did not extend to the surgeon
who opened the vein of a person that fell down in the street
in a fit. The same common sense accepts the ruling, cited
by Plowden, that the statute of 1st Edward II, which enacts
that a prisoner who breaks prison shall be guilty of felony,
does not extend to a prisoner who breaks out when the
prison is on fire-- for he is not to be hanged because he
would not stay to be burnt. And we think that a like
common sense will sanction the ruling we make, that the act
of Congress which punishes the obstruction or retarding of
the passage of the mail, or of its carrier, does not apply to a
case of temporary detention of the mail caused by the arrest
of the carrier upon an indictment for murder.*
The questions certified to us must be answered IN, THE
NEGATIVE; and it is So ORDERED.
Mr. Justice MILLER, having been absent at the hearing,
took no part in this order.
MULLIGAN V. CORBINS.
A statute of a State releasing I, whatever interest in certain real estate
may 'rightfully belong to it, is not a law impairing the obligation
of a contract in a case where an agent of the State, having by contract
with it acquired an interest in ha/f the lot, undertakes to sell and con-
veys the whole of it. In such case-and on an assumption that the
agent does own one half-the statute will be held to apply to the remain-
ing half alone.
ERROR to the Court of Appeals of Kentucky; the case
being this:
Solomon Brindley, a free colored man, was the owner, in
' See also United States v. Hart. 1 Peters's Circuit Court, 390.
Dec. 18138.]](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ussccases0390&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)