Posted on 03/16/2017 1:41:39 PM PDT by RummyChick
A bunch of dairy delivery drivers in Maine say the state's overtime law is unclear cause of a missing Oxford comma ... and no less than the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
The drivers are suing their employer -- Portland-based Oakhurst Dairy -- for unpaid overtime wages, arguing they qualify for that dough because of the confusing way Maine's labor law is punctuated ... without a comma to distinguish who exactly is exempt.
The part of the law they're dissecting says overtime doesn't apply to employees involved in the "canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of: (1) Agriculture produce; (2) meat and fish products; and (3) perishable foods." The drivers say because there's no comma before the words "or distribution" ... it means the law only applies to packers, not folks doing the actual distribution. At first, a lower court sided with Oakhurst, saying the law was quite clear ... but the appeals court said otherwise and sent it back down for further proceedings. That makes this case crazy, amazing, and downright weird as hell.
Good grammar- it’s the law!
I use the two “grandma” statements as an example of why commas are so important. A comma can save a life!
Me too! The semicolon, however, is the transvestite of punctuation.
Thank the AP style book for that. The Chicago Manual of Style sill keeps it, I think.
Sill = Still
Yes it did and I remember one from junior high.
A anti-czarist was convicted of a crime. His wife appealed.
The letter from the judge said
Pardon impossible, to be sent to Siberia
It was intercepted and changed to read
Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia
“In this case the series is an or series, but the same rules apply as for an and series....but at least it explains why there is not and.”
I’m not sure what you mean by that.
“Here is the problem: storing, packing for shipment or distribution of: shipment or distribution. the truckers are the distribution, but the absence of the comma after shipment changes the meaning from packing for shipping and distribution to packing for (either) shipment or distribution, not distribution itself, hence the ruling.”
Yes I saw that when I read the article, which is why I said that everyone is so focused on the issue of the comma they missed that the “and” which comes later in the exemption should be an “or”, which is an even greater error than the comma.
List can be inclusive in which case they will conclude their last item with "and", our the can be exclusive in which case they would end with last item separated with "or." Inclusive requires all must be done, while exclusive implies if any in the list is done. The court is wrong.
On the other hand is it morally right to over work people just because they work with perishable goods and their employer refuses to hire sufficient help to get the job done in a reasonable work day? This law incentivizes the employer to overwork his employees because he does not have to pay overtime wages or hire an additional employee.
our the can be exclusive. . . = or the list can be exclusive. . .
I have no clue what happened there.
My mom taught me not to use the Oxford comma but I think I like it.
I only use the Oxford comma when I feel that otherwise there might be confusion. For example, I wouldn’t write the dedication “To my parents, Ayn Rand and God.”
This is an outrageous ruling. If the lack of an Oxford comma was meant to convey that it was packing for shipment or distribution of perishables that was exempt, not packing for shipment of perishables and distribution of perishables that both were exempt, then there would have had to have been an or prior to packing for shipment or distribution to signify that it was the end of the list. That First Circuit panel must have been composed of illiterates (slight hyperbole on my part).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.