The highest law is often the greatest wrong.

Explanation

Rigid, literal enforcement of a legal rule without regard to equity or circumstance can produce gross injustice — the law must be tempered by reason, and courts of equity exist precisely to prevent the letter of the law from becoming an instrument of oppression.

Where this applies

• A city enforces a building code so rigidly that a homeowner is fined thousands of dollars for a fence that is one inch too tall, and the court reduces the penalty because the strictest application of law can produce the greatest injustice.
• A judge sentences a first-time offender to the maximum penalty under a mandatory minimum statute, and an appellate court notes that inflexible application of the law can be the worst form of injustice.
• A landlord uses the letter of a lease to evict a disabled tenant for a minor technical violation, and the court intervenes because the harshest enforcement of legal rights can amount to the greatest wrong.