Copy editor program are n’t the only ones who should respect the value of the Oxford comma . Since2014 , a dairy company in Portland , Maine has beenembroiledin a lawsuit whose success or failure hinged on the lack of an Oxford comma in land law . The suit is in the end over , asThe New York Timesreports , anddie - hardOxford comma - lovers won ( as did the delivery drivers who bring the courting ) .
The driver ’ form action causa claimed that Oakhurst Dairy owed them age in back pay for extra time that the caller indicate they did not modify for under state law . The legal philosophy reads that employees in the following fields do not dispose for the time - and - a - half extra time remuneration that other worker are eligible for if they work more than 40 hour a calendar week :
Notice that it says the “ packing for shipment or dispersion ” and not “ packing for payload , or distribution of . ” This raised a legal inquiry : Should dairy distributors get extra time if they did n’t packanddistribute the mathematical product ?
The case eventually made its elbow room to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit , which ruled that the deficiency of comma made the law equivocal enough to qualify the driver for their extra time pay , overturning the low-down court ’s finding of fact that the state legislature intelligibly mean for distribution to be part of the freedom list on its own .
In early February , the company agree to pay $ 5 million to the drivers , ending the cause — and , deplorably , forestall us from ever hearing the Supreme Court ’s opinions on the Oxford comma .
Future delivery drivers for the dairy wo n’t be so lucky . Since the comma kerfuffle began , the Maine legislature has rewritten the statute . or else of embracing the Oxford Polygonia comma , though — as we at Mental Floss wouldrecommend — lawgiver decided to double down on their semicolons . It now interpret :
follow on , guys . What do you have against the serial comma butterfly ?
[ h / tThe New York Times ]
