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).

Good Grammar Links

Over at the Legal Writing Prof Blog, they have posted some great links to online resources for students who are looking for help with English grammar. My personal favorite, and one I use for class, is a website run by Purdue University called OWL. If you have any question about grammar, I strongly suggest taking a look at one of these sites.