Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 15 submissions in the queue.
posted by Fnord666 on Saturday March 18 2017, @12:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the I'll-take-'Grammar-Nazi'-for-$10,000,000-Alex-... dept.

A company that refused to pay its delivery drivers overtime for years has lost its bid to be a cheapskate, to the tune of $10,000,000. The 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals (decision-pdf) interpreted an exception to OT laws with special care to a meaningful but missing comma. Specifically, the phrase existing in the statute is:
"..., packing for shipment or distribution of:"

The company wanted the phrase to be interpreted as:
"..., packing for shipment, or distribution of:"

Without the comma, the activity excluded from coverage is "packing". With the comma present, it would have excluded packing or distribution.

The law as it exists in all its commaless glory:

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.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday March 18 2017, @01:17PM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 18 2017, @01:17PM (#480825) Journal

    If a commaless law is $10M, I wonder how much for a commatose [urbandictionary.com] law?
    (note: the link is SFW, even if the site may raise some eyebrows).

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by sjames on Saturday March 18 2017, @02:00PM (1 child)

    by sjames (2882) on Saturday March 18 2017, @02:00PM (#480838) Journal

    Also known as the Shatner comma.

    • (Score: 5, Funny) by RamiK on Saturday March 18 2017, @02:40PM

      by RamiK (1813) on Saturday March 18 2017, @02:40PM (#480847)

      Also, known, as, the Shatner comma.

      FTFY

      --
      compiling...