A Costly Comma

The New York Times ran a story a few days ago on the case I talked briefly about in Common Law of Contract class concerning comma use in a contract. I was a bit off on how much money was at stake (my terrible memory had me thinking 100s of millions when in fact the comma placement is worth $1 million), yet the point remains the same. Drafting a contract very carefully, even down to comma use can save one a lot of trouble. As the NYT reports:

If there is a moral to the story about a contract dispute between Canadian companies, this is it: Pay attention in grammar class. The dispute between Rogers Communications of Toronto, Canada’s largest cable television provider, and a telephone company in Atlantic Canada, Bell Aliant, is over the phone company’s attempt to cancel a contract governing Rogers’ use of telephone poles. But the argument turns on a single comma in the 14-page contract. The answer is worth 1 million Canadian dollars ($888,000).