To Comma or Not to Comma

In my travels I have often come across many people who tell me they are stupid for having issues with English. I always say to them they are not stupid, English is difficult. With so many generations of slang and different dialect created around the world, proper, written English can be very difficult for anyone. When it comes to writing a law, rule or agreement the interpretation of how the language is written, rather than how it is intended to be read, is how any decision based on the wording will be made. Imagine making a 5 million dollar mistake over misinterpreting the writing of a labor law rule in your native language.

Punctuation is crucial in conveying information. In Maine this became clear when a missing comma in a legislature for overtime caused uncertainty in how the law should be interpreted (Victor). In 2014 a dairy was sued by truck drivers that had not received overtime pay (Victor). The dairy thought that Maine exempted them from needing to pay (Victor). However, the way the preceding text was written before the exemptions it was unclear if the law was meant to exempt the distribution of perishable foods, or packing for the shipment or distribution of them (Victor). The result ended up with the drivers winning five-million-dollars (Victor). The judge ruled that the law was unclear and a comma was required after the word shipment in order to make it clear.

Although it seems a bit drastic to consider a comma could end up causing such an issue, it is still very valid. Because rulings are based on president had the judge ruled the absence of the comma did not matter and assumed the law could be interpreted by common sense there could have been a bigger issue (Lumen Candela). In the future if another law was questioned based on being unclear, the ruling could be asked to refer to this case and the ability to argue that a law is not clearly interpretable would be lost (Lumen Candela). For this reason, the ruling was correct.

There are two lessons that can be taken away from this case. The first is that punctuation is very important. Punctuation provides clarity in writing and allows the reader to understand what is written. The second lesson is that laws have to be able to be understood in order to be followed. They can not be left open to the interpretation of whomever is reading them. That is why laws are normally written with precision, clarity and offer explanation.

While it may seem like this should be an embarrassment to the dairy company it is possibly more common than one may think. Not understanding punctuations or proper English is normal for many native speakers of the language in North America. The dairy company would have had a lawyer look the rule for a lawsuit they ended up losing.

Sources

Lumen Candela. “The American Legal System | Boundless Political Science.” Lumen Learning, Link

Victor, Daniel. “Oxford Comma Dispute Is Settled as Maine Drivers Get $5 Million.” The New York Times, 10 Feb. 2018, Link.

Cover Image

Pexels. (2020, January 2). "100 US Dollar Banknotes", Free Stock photo. Link to Image