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PattyFlipper
Joined: 14 Nov 2007
Posts: 572
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 Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 6:38 am Post subject: |
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| JZer wrote: |
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The contract said:
"This agreement shall be effective from the date it is made and shall continue in force for a period of five (5) years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five (5) year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party."
Rogers Communications believed the placement of the second comma stated the contract was good for at least five years, while Bell Aliant said the comma indicated the deal could be terminated before if one year's notice was given.
In the end, Canada's telecommunications commission sided with Bell Aliant. They stated the comma should have been omitted if the contract was intended to last five years in its shortest possible term. As a result, Bell Alliant was able to save over $2 million by ending the deal early." |
Yes, the court may have ruled this way and there are clearly academic standards for English but I am not really sure that the Canadian court system had any strong grounds to rule for Bell Aliant or for Rogers Communication.
I agree that in standard academic English the two commas in their contract create an independent clause. But who is really to say that it is correct English. |
Which is the reason why, until fairly recently (on the back of the 'Plain English' campaign), commas and most other punctuation except full stops and capitalization, were completely omitted from legislation, contracts, deeds and other legal documents in England and Wales. The English courts long ago held that interpretation of a document should not be dependent on the position of a comma or other punctuation mark, whether 'correctly' inserted or not. |
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