It’s no use crying over spilt milk….or ‘Why the Oxford comma is not dead’

That comma would have sunk our ship

-David G. Webbert, a lawyer representing the dairy drivers

I’m often dismissed as a pedant for using the Oxford comma in my writing and book editing. I like the fact it makes sentences complete whilst removing any possible ambiguity….and hallelujah!… a recent US court case has just proved me right!

The Dairy Overtime Dispute

In 2014, three truck drivers originally sued Oakhurst Dairy in the USA for more than four years’ worth of overtime pay.

The case was referred to the Appeals Court, after it had been rejected by a lower court, which delivered its verdict on 16 March 2017.

The law in question stated that :

Overtime would not be paid for:

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.

Note the lack of a comma after ‘shipment‘.

If there had been a comma after ‘shipment,’ it would have been clear that the law exempted an activity performed by the dairy delivery drivers – i.e. the distribution of a perishable foodstuff; milk – and hence no overtime would have been payable.

However, the judge ruled that the lack of a comma after ‘shipment,’ raised questions as to whether the law had intended to exempt distribution activities carried out by the drivers for these three categories.

This judgement is expected to cost Oakhurst Dairy a lot of money, and is expected to cause the law writers of Maine (and other US states) a big headache, since it had widely become standard practice to exclude the Oxford comma in legal draftings.

The Oxford comma rule

Also known as the serial comma, the Oxford comma clarifies sentences in which things are listed:

Oxford comma: a comma used after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items, before ‘and’ or ‘or’.

For example:

This book is dedicated to my parents, David Bowie, and Ginger Rogers

has a different meaning to:

This book is dedicated to my parents, David Bowie and Ginger Rogers

With the comma after ‘David Bowie,’ it is clear that these are 3 separate, distinct people….but without the final comma, it could read as if your parents were ‘David Bowie and Ginger Rogers’.

Of course, if that’s what you meant in the first place, then fine….but somehow….????

Then again, if in doubt, always easier to stick more commas in than to leave out!