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Latin. adv. From inconvenience. An argument founded upon the hardship of the case, and the inconvenience or disastrous consequences to which a different course of reasoning would lead.
In certain cases an argument ab inconveniente has great weight, and such an argument generally arises in questions of construction, either of a private writ or of an Act of Parliament. If in a private deed (as, for example, a deed of settlement) there be equivocal expressions, and great inconvenience must necessarily follow from one construction of them, this will go far to show that such a construction is not according to the true intention or meaning of the granter. In like manner, in construing Acts of Parliament, if the meaning of it be doubtful, that construction will not be regarded as the right one, which will occasion great inconvenience in carrying out its provisions, if it will bear another construction not liable to this objection. But if the terms of the deed or of the statute be plain, having a necessary meaning, it must bear that construction, and that construction only, whatever may be the inconvenience arising from such a course.
