Punctuation dispute helps workers win lawsuit
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The Oxford comma can help organize longer sentences, eliminate confusion in serial ideas — and apparently help win lawsuits.
As reported in Boston Magazine on Wednesday, the lack of an Oxford comma in a state law helped a U.S. Court of Appeals judge in Maine rule in favor of overtime pay for dairy workers in a case that came down to an oft-disputed — among grammar aficionados but rarely in court — preference in punctuation.
The Oxford comma is a comma used before a conjunction like “and” or “or” in a series of three or more items. Contested in writer circles, opponents find it to be to superfluous, while proponents believe it’s necessary for better organization, sentence structure and clarity.
A judge in the case against Oakhurst Dairy filed by workers who wanted overtime pay said the state’s overtime laws were written ambiguously. “For want of a comma, we have this case,” the judge wrote, according to the magazine.
Per state law, the following activities are not eligible for overtime pay: “The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of: (1) Agricultural produce; (2) Meat and fish products; and (3) Perishable foods.”
According to the magazine, Oakhurst argued that “distribution of” was separate from “packing for shipment,” which would allow the company to claim exemption from paying its delivery drivers overtime. In trying to prove lawmakers’ intent, Oakhurst offered Maine’s legislative style guide as evidence, as it advises against using the Oxford comma, according to the magazine.
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