Be Careful Where You Put Your Commas

[major_clanger]

In Osmium Shipping v Cargill the High Court has ruled that the placement of a comma was crucial in deciding whether or not seizure by pirates fell within a crucial clause of the shipping contract*.

The clause provided that if the vessel should “be put back whilst on voyage by reason of any accident or breakdown, … or capture/seizure, or detention

Comments

[multiclassgeek]

I'm just wondering how they'd mark up the comments when code-ifying (sorry) in LEGAL

[coth]

Agreed. But noting that you can make the clauses as clear and unambiguous as you like inside the frame of your conversation, but you can't control how it will be read outside of that frame, and you can't prevent it being misread and/or ignored!

On a related point, I once showed by CV to a non-technical person, who handed it back with the comment that she did not understand any of the (industry- and role- specific) jargon and I should rewrite it without. Which if I had done would of course guaranteed I would not get interviews for any of the jobs it was written to get.

[hairyears]

Hmmm... I wonder which of those Victorian clauses is applicable to software failure, or DDOS attack by a botnet.

[davidwake]

I'm editing an anthology at the moment and I've just had an email about a comma.

[pauldormer]

Was a Mr Albert Haddock involved?

Didn't it use to be the case that some legal documents had to be drafted without commas, because they were printed/typed on low quality paper, and you didn't want a blemish being mistaken for a comma.

[owlfish]

Wills appear to be comma-free in England. At least, in my limited experience of them.