Tipsy Coachman

The Tipsy Coachman doctrine is a rule of law that upholds a correct conclusion despite flawed reasoning by the judge below. In other words, the judgment below was right, but for the wrong reason.

The colorful "tipsy coachman" label comes from a 19th century Georgia case, Lee v. Porter, 63 Ga 345, 346 (1879), in which the Georgia Supreme Court, noting that the "human mind is so constituted that in many instances it finds the truth when wholly unable to find the way that leads to it," quoted from Oliver Goldsmith's " [http://www.poeticbyway.com/xgoldsmi.htm Retaliation: A Poem] " written in 1774:

:Here, waiter, more wine, let me sit while I'm able,:'Till all my companions sink under the table;:Then, with chaos and blunders encircling my head,:Let me ponder, and tell what I think of the dead.: ...

:Here lies honest William, whose heart was a mint,:While the owner ne'er knew half the good that was in't;:The pupil of impulse, it forced him along,:His conduct still right, with his argument wrong;:Still aiming at honour, yet fearing to roam,:The coachman was tipsy, the chariot drove home;:Would you ask for his merits, alas! he had none,:What was good was spontaneous, his faults were his own.