George Sutherland

“ The Missouri Court of Appeals, in Elstroth v. Young, 94 Mo. App. 351, 355, 356, 68 S. W. 100, held that the proceeds of the sale of lands so made could not be used to make good deficiencies in the expenses of administration.
The further contention that, if the personal estate has been consumed by administration expenses and real estate is sold to pay debts and legacies, as a practical matter, real estate has been sold because of administration expenses, we put aside as inconsequential. ”

“ Courts have sometimes exercised a high degree of ingenuity in the effort to find justification for wrenching from the words of a statute a meaning which literally they did not bear in order to escape consequences thought to be absurd or to entail great hardship. ”

“ It is not enough merely that hard and objectionable or absurd consequences, which probably were not within the contemplation of the framers, are produced by an act of legislation. Laws enacted with good intention, when put to the test, frequently, and to the surprise of the lawmaker himself, turn out to be mischievous, absurd, or otherwise objectionable. ”