Postal Service v. Konan · ¶31

Konan separately contends that a “miscarriage” of mail happens only when the mail goes to the “wrong address,” not when it is (like her mail) held at the post office or returned to the sender.Brief for Respondent 15.We again decline to impose a limitation that has no basis in the dictionaries or ordinary usage.Speakers used the term “miscarriage” when the mail failed to reach its intended destination, re- gardless of where it ended up.One newspaper, for example, explained that a letter “ ‘[m]iscarried’ ” because it was “ ‘de- layed.’ ”Muskogee Times-Democrat, June 15, 1934, p. 1. Another ran a story in which a correspondent’s “letter mis- carried and came too late.”Jersey City, N. J., The Evening Journal, June 10, 1907, p. 10.And a court described mail mistakenly left “in the post office” as having “miscarried.” Heinrich v. First Nat. Bank, 219 N. Y. 1, 4, 6, 113 N. E. 531, 531–532 (1916).

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