Oxford Comma Prevails in Court

CharminTide

Hall of Fame
Oct 23, 2005
7,319
2,032
187
In this class action lawsuit, drivers for Oakhurst Dairy sued the company over its failure to grant them overtime pay. According to Maine law, workers are entitled to 1.5 times their normal pay for any hours worked over 40 per week. However, there are exemptions to this rule. Specifically, companies don’t need to pay overtime for the following activities:

"The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of:
1. Agricultural produce;
2. Meat and fish product; and
3. Perishable foods."

Note the end of the opening line, where there is no comma before the “or.”

Oakhurst Dairy argued its drivers did not qualify for overtime because they [engage in distribution]. However, the drivers argued the letter of the law said no such thing. Had there been an Oxford comma, it would be clear the law intended to exclude “packing for shipment” and “distribution” as two separate exempt activities.

Without that comma, as the judge maintained, this distinction was not clearcut... As a result, the court found in favor of the drivers, costing the dairy [company] an estimated $10 million.
Link

Lightly edited for clarity.
 

Tidewater

Hall of Fame
Mar 15, 2003
22,401
13,177
287
Hooterville, Vir.
On QI with Steven Fry, one of the guests was asked, "What is an Oxford comma?"
The guest responded "It is a comma that thinks it's better than all the other commas."
 

AV8N

1st Team
Sep 18, 2013
751
0
35
Is there such a thing as "packing for distribution" as opposed to "packing for shipment"? I'm not in logistics, but I don't believe that is the case. Seems like the judge went out of his way to side with the drivers. Not sure I blame him in this case - those are pretty crappy jobs to not get overtime for, plus I don't see how that law doesn't conflict with federal rules for non-exempt employees.
I was taught not to use a comma before "and", but then I went to public school. [emoji2]
I imagine the comma will soon be added once companies start lobbying the Maine legislature.
 

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